Meet the Newest New England Patriots: Borders and Hearn

Defensive backs Breon Borders and Azizi Hearn are the newest members of the New England Patriots. Both players have been added to the Patriots practice squad. With Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones and Jack Jones are all experiencing injuries that limit their availability, added depth in the defensive backfield was needed.

New England had open space after the recent departures of quarterbacks Matt Corral and Ian Book.

Breon Borders

The 28-year-old out of Duke has played in 33 career NFL games, including one in the playoffs. After not being selected in the 2016 NFL Draft, he was originally signed to the Oakland Raiders practice squad. In the seven years since, he has also spent time with 10 other organizations: Buffalo, Houston, Jacksonville, Washington, Pittsburgh, Miami, Tennessee, Arizona, Chicago and Atlanta. New England is the twelfth NFL stop for Borders.

The majority of Breon Borders NFL game experience has come with the Jaguars (12 games from 2018-2019) and Titans (17 games from 2020-2021). His one career interception came against Philip Rivers, and he also has a fumble recovery to his credit. In addition to playing cornerback, Borders has also played special teams.

Current Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien was the head coach of the Texans when Borders was briefly on their practice squad in 2018, though he never played in an actual game for Houston.

Azizi Hearn

Azizi Hearn is an NFL rookie, who was not selected in the 2023 NFL Draft. He played college football for three different schools: Arizona, Wyoming, and UCLA. Last season with the Bruins, he was teammates with Patriots offensive guard Atonio Mafi.

After signing with the Las Vegas Raiders following the draft, Azizi Hearn was part of the team’s final cuts to get down to a 53-man roster. Like Borders, he will be provide the New England Patriots some much needed depth in the defensive backfield.