{"id":34697,"date":"2001-07-31T19:04:03","date_gmt":"2001-07-31T23:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/?p=34697"},"modified":"2021-01-31T19:06:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T00:06:36","slug":"patriots-sign-cox-mercer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2001\/07\/31\/patriots-sign-cox-mercer\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Sign Cox, Mercer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SMITHFIELD, R.I. &#8212; The Patriots today signed two defensive players off of the free agent wire. LB Bryan Cox, who had been rumored to be coming to New England virtually all offseason, agreed to a contract today. The Pats also agreed to terms with NT Geradie Mercer.<\/p>\n<p>Cox, 33, is a solid veteran with a reputation for a very short temper. Cox will immediately add needed linebacker depth to the team. His advanced age is a question mark, but he has had several solid years with Miami, Chicago and the New York Jets, who cut him this year as a salary cap casualty.<\/p>\n<p>Cox is now reunited with his former defensive coordinator in the Meadowlands, Bill Belichick.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots also signed Mercer, a free agent from Philadelphia. He was originally property of the Carolina Panthers. Mercer will be vying for the nose tackle position vacated by the departure of Chad Eaton to Seattle via free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Patriots today signed two defensive players off of the free agent wire. LB Bryan Cox, who had been rumored to be coming to New England virtually all offseason, agreed to a contract today. The Pats also agreed to terms with NT Geradie Mercer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22330],"tags":[1771,22380,44],"class_list":["post-34697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2001-patriots-offseason","tag-bryan-cox","tag-geradie-mercer","tag-new-england-patriots"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Patriots Sign Cox, Mercer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Patriots today signed two defensive players off of the free agent wire. 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