Tackle Brown tells his side

There has been a considerable amount of reporting on Patriots offensive lineman Trent Brown this season on topics such as missed games, lateness to meetings, and a perceived unwillingness to battle through injuries.

On Tuesday, NESN published an interview telling the story from Brown’s perspective.

“It’s been a rough year,” Brown said. “This has been a year like no other that I’ve had in my NFL career as far as the amount of anonymous sources that have come forward to spew complete lies about my character.

“It’s been tough to even go in the building every day knowing that there’s somebody that I probably look at every day, or smiles in my face every day, that is running a smear campaign.”

As for his lack of playing time near the end of the season, Brown said that he was ill for “pretty much the last month.” He said multiple illnesses, including strep throat, the flu, and bronchitis, hit him during that period. Brown missed six games, and made just eight starts this season.

The 30-year-old tackle said he skipped offseason practices because he “wanted to be a dad” and had a travel issue that caused him to be late to minicamp. The Patriots asked him to report early to training camp, and Brown did not like that.

“Of course, as a nine-year vet, that had me a little ticked off,” Brown said.

Brown said one of his issues with the team is the coaching staff messing with him.

“I’ve even heard from coaches how they’ll sit in meetings and they’ll be talking about how they can [expletive] with me,” Brown said. “It’s really crazy to think that we’re spending time talking about that instead of getting better.”

Ultimately, Brown said he has some issues to settle with the Patriots but is open to returning.

“I’m not opposed to it,” Brown said. “I think before that would take place, some things would need to be hashed out and understood.”

One of the things the Patriots need to do a better job of understanding going forward is how players want to be treated, Brown said.

“There just needs to be more attention on signing and drafting good players,” Brown said. “And also understanding that Foxborough is not a vacation spot. You’ve got to spend some money to get good players, and you’ve got to spend money to keep your good players. And once they’re in-house, you’ve got to treat them with some respect and common decency as a human being.”

Caserio denies report

Nick Caserio, the Patriots’ longtime director of player personnel, has been the Texans’ general manager since 2021. In that time, he’s made significant strides in rebuilding the franchise.

Yet with New England potentially pursuing a new direction following a 413 season, Caserio’s name inevitably came up. A recent Washington Post report by Jason La Canfora claimed that he’s continued to “hear that [Caserio] would be open to a return to New England if such an arrangement could be worked out.”

On Tuesday, Caserio dismissed the report during an interview with SportsRadio 610’s “Payne & Pendergast.”

“I would just say, this time of year there are a lot of things that are said, and anybody that makes a jackass statement — that they either know me or ‘trust me, you can rely on this information,’ — honestly is totally off-base,” Caserio explained.

“I would say I am grateful for the opportunity that I have here. Respectfully, I know there are a lot of reporters out there that think they have information, but this becomes silly season.”

Capping off a forceful denial of the rumors, Caserio implored media members to double-check reports more carefully: “Whoever these reporters are that make these ridiculous statements, maybe you want to talk to me about it first before you put some information out there that has actually zero basis.”