FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Patriots signed free agent linebacker Rosevelt Colvin today. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Colvin spent five seasons with the Patriots from 2003-07. The Patriots also signed linebacker Angelo Craig to their practice squad.
Colvin, 31, has played in 117 career games with 75 starts over nine NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears (1999-2002) and the Patriots (2003-07). Colvin's career statistics include 414 tackles (293 solo), 52.5 sacks, three interceptions, 18 passes defensed, 13 forced fumbles and nine fumble recoveries. His 52.5 career sacks rank fifth among all active NFL linebackers.
The 6-foot-3-inch, 250-pound linebacker was signed by the Patriots as an unrestricted free agent on March 11, 2003. Over the next five seasons with New England, Colvin played in 61 games with 39 starts and recorded 203 tackles (136 solo), including 26.5 sacks, one interception, eight passes defensed, six forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries. In 2007, he started 10 of the first 11 games and totaled 28 tackles, four sacks and an interception before being placed on the reserve/injured list with a foot injury.
The Indianapolis native led the Patriots with 8.5 sacks in 2006 and also paced the team with 7.0 sacks in 2005. In 2006, Colvin started 15 of 16 games and totaled 26 quarterback hits, a total that was double the next highest total on the team. In 2005, he played in every game and started the final 11 contests while finishing fourth on the team with 73 tackles, the second highest total of his career. He played in all 16 games in 2004 and totaled 38 tackles (20 solo), including five sacks. In his first season in New England in 2003, he started the first two games and had two sacks before suffering a season-ending hip injury at Philadelphia on Sept. 14.
Colvin spent the first four seasons of his professional career with Chicago after being selected by the Bears in the fourth round (111th overall) of the 1999 NFL Draft out of Purdue. He led the Bears with 10.5 sacks in both 2001 and 2002, becoming the first Chicago player in more than a decade (and the only linebacker in team history) to have a double-digit sack total in consecutive seasons.
Colvin was released by the Patriots on Feb. 26, 2008 and was signed by the Houston Texans on June 16, 2008. He spent the 2008 preseason with the Texans and was released on Aug. 29, 2008.
Craig, 23, was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft (244th overall) out of the University of Cincinnati. The 6-foot-5-inch, 242-pound linebacker was released by the Bengals in the final preseason roster cutdown on Aug. 31, 2008. He was signed to the Carolina Panthers' practice squad on Sept. 3, 2008 and was released the following day.
