The New England Patriots made major investments in their defensive tackle group last year, but one of the most impactful actually happened after roster cuts: signing Cory Durden, who eventually ended the 2025 season as one of the team’s most-used players along the interior defensive line.
Heading into his second year in Foxborough, little is expected to change for the 27-year-old.
Hard facts
Name: Cory Durden
Position: Defensive tackle/Interior defensive line
Jersey number: 94
Opening day age: 27 (1/26/1999)
Measurements:
6’4”, 305 lbs, 10 1/8” hand size, 33 1/2” arm length, 82 1/8” wingspan, 5.17s 40-yard dash, 7.56s 3-cone drill, 4.80s short shuttle, 31” vertical jump, 9’2” broad jump, 16 bench press reps, 5.79 Relative Athletic Score
Experience
NFL: Detroit Lions (2023), Los Angeles Rams (2023-24), New York Giants (2024), New England Patriots (2025-) | College: Florida State (2017-20), N.C. State (2021-22)
A three-star recruit coming out of Newberry, FL, Durden received more than a dozen scholarship offers. Among the schools offering him were prestigious institutions such as Alabama, Georgia and Miami. However, Florida State had shown interest in him since his sophomore season at high school and he eventually opted to join the Seminoles. In four seasons in Tallahassee, he played 32 games with 16 starts and a combined 7.5 sacks.
In December 2020, however, he opted to enter the transfer portal. Durden moved to N.C. State just two days later, and finished his college career with the Wolfpack. In two seasons, he added 25 games and 21 starts to his career totals and was named All-ACC twice (first team 2021, third team 2022).
Durden entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with the Lions, but was cut before his rookie season began. He joined the Rams’ practice squad shortly thereafter and remained in Los Angeles until December 2024, when the Giants poached him. Durden left New York the subsequent August and later arrived in New England.
Entering the 2026 season, his fourth in the NFL, he has played a combined 29 regular season and playoff games with six starts. He also has 47 tackles to his name.
Scouting report
Strengths: At 6-foot- with 33 1/2-inch arms, Durden offers solid length to hold his own along the interior defensive line. He is the most robustly-built player his position has to offer, but he uses his 305 pounds well to drop a firm anchor and stand up blockers at the point of attack. In general, he provides good core strength and a firm base while also displaying some burst out of his stance. This combined with powerful hands and an ability to employ counters, allows him to be disruptive both as a pass rusher and a run defender.
Weaknesses: Durden is good when penetrating up the field, but his later quickness leaves some to be desired and puts him in challenging positions against zone-based blocking schemes. He also plays with an inconsistent pad level, which is exacerbated by a tendency to lean into his opposition and in turn creates too many off-balance plays that neutralize him. He also has been inconsistent as a finisher, posting solid pressure numbers but not actually hitting or sacking the quarterback at an accompanying rate. His tackling also has been on and off.
2025 review
Stats: 21 games (6 starts) | 512 defensive snaps (39.9%), 126 special teams snaps (23.0%) | 34 tackles, 5 missed tackles (12.8%), 5 TFLs | 30 QB pressures (3 hits, 27 hurries) | 2 penalties (incl. 0 declined/offsetting)
Season recap: Even though 2024 was the best season of his career up until that point, Durden entered his first training camp in New York on the roster bubble. He never managed to escape it, and ultimately saw the bubble burst ahead of the cutdown deadline: he was cut by the Giants as part of their final moves toward the 53-player limit. Passing through the waiver wire unclaimed, though, he was in a position to return via the practice squad.
That did not happen. Instead, Durden took his talents to New England. He spent one week on the Patriots’ practice squad to open his stint, and then got himself promoted to the 53-man roster.
Durden never looked back, and ended up producing the most productive campaign of his career.
Appearing in all 21 of the Patriots’ regular season and playoff games, including six as a starter, Durden finished as the club’s No. 3 defensive tackle in terms of playing time. He did benefit from injuries higher up on the depth chart, especially the one suffered by Milton Williams, but nonetheless looked solid in his 512 total snaps on the defensive side of the ball — all while working mostly as an early-down run defender asked to also rush the passer on occasion.
In the first area, he registered 32 tackles including five for a loss of yardage. While he did show some inconsistency protecting his gaps and finishing tackles, his pass defense was quite effective. In fact, his 30 quarterback pressures ranked fifth on the team. Of those 30, 13 came in the playoffs: while he registered no disruptions in the Super Bowl and was generally quiet on the game’s biggest stage, he was a handful for the Chargers’ and Texans’ offensive lines in their respective postseason matchups with the Patriots.
All in all, Durden’s first year as a Patriot did leave some to be desired particularly against the run. His pass rush, on the other hand, was quite solid and a reason why he remained on the 53-man roster all year and into 2026.
2026 preview
Position: Nose tackle/1-technique defensive tackle | Ability: Fringe starter/Role player | Contract: Signed through 2026 (2027 ERFA)
What will be his role? Durden was a part-time starter for the Patriots in 2025, but effectively spent the year as the fourth option behind Milton Williams, Christian Barmore and Khyiris Tonga. With the latter now gone, however, the team might be looking at him to take a step up. Don’t expect him to be used the same fashion as Tonga, simply because he is a different body type, but he should end up taking over some of his early-down responsibilities at the heart of New England’s defensive line.
What is his growth potential? Durden saw irregular in-game opportunities in his first two seasons in the NFL, but he showed some promise in his third with the Patriots — despite joining the team without the benefit of training camp. Now with a full year in New England under his belt, he should naturally take a step forward even if he might never become an impact player like some of the other DTs the team currently has under contract.
Does he have positional versatility? Durden can line up in multiple spots up front, but on the whole is not a particularly noteworthy player from a versatility perspective. That said, he did show that he can wear a diverse set of hats on special teams: in 2025, he lined up on both the punt block team, the field goal/extra point block team, and on the field goal kicking squad.
What is his salary cap situation? When the Patriots signed Durden from their practice squad to the 53-man roster last September, they did so via a two-year contract. As part of that pact, he counts $1.145 million against their books right now. That sum consists entirely of a non-guaranteed base salary.
How safe is his roster spot? Durden was part of the Patriots’ initial 53-man roster, and in no real danger to leave it anytime soon. The bigger question is just how heavily-involved he will be in a group also featuring the aforementioned Milton Williams and Christian Barmore.
Summary: Whether or not Durden will be a capable replacement for Khyiris Tonga will be seen; the Patriots seem to believe he can provide some similar value. However, his run defense needs to be better for him to justify a regular role in a starter-level capacity.
What do you think about Cory Durden heading into the 2026 season? How will he handle DT3 duties? Will his run defense be up to the task? Please head down to the comment section to share your thoughts with the rest of the community.
