Pats Pulpit
Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. Let’s take a look at new Patriots edge-rusher Harold Landry III, who completely demolished the Las Vegas Raiders after an offseason in which he was an under-the-radar addition at best. Despite the 20-13 loss, Landry showed every possible attribute he can bring to a defense.
The 2025 New England Patriots were a cauldron of change. A new head coach in Mike Vrabel, a new (well, old and new) offensive coordinator in Josh McDaniels, a new defensive coordinator in Terrell Williams, and all kinds of new defensive talent with free agents Milton Williams, Robert Spillane, and Carlton Davis. All great potential additions, but in the Patriots’ 20-13 Week 1 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, it was another defensive addition, and a bit of an afterthought with all the other churn, who defined his role more than anybody else on the field.
That relative afterthought was edge-rusher Harold Landry, the former Tennessee Titan who signed a three-year, $43.5 million contract with $26 million guaranteed to add his talents to the equation. At his peak in the 2021 and 2023 seasons, Landry showed all the characteristics you want in an edge disruptor, but his career has also been interrupted by injuries.
Landry missed the entire 2022 season to a torn ACL, and while his nine sacks and 30 total pressures in the 2024 season were decent enough, it’s not tough to figure out why Landry’s new contract wasn’t a patch on the $87.5 million deal with $35.25 million guaranteed Landry signed with the Titans in 2022.
In the court of public opinion, if Landry was considered at all, he was thought to be a guy with a couple of good seasons validating his status as a second-round pick in the 2018 draft out of Boston College. But with all those new defenders on the Patriots’ roster, it was Williams, the former agent of demolition for the Philadelphia Eagles, who got all the regard and most of the money — a four-year, $104 million contract with $63 million guaranteed. While Williams could call his shot after the Super Bowl, Landry was released by the Titans after his first NFL team accepted the idea of a trade, and released him after no trade came to pass.
Then came the season opener against the Raiders, and what Landry did to poor Las Vegas right tackle D.J. Glaze, and the rest of the right side of the Raiders’ offensive line. Landry had three sacks and eight total pressures in the game, all from the defensive left side, and whether he was looping inside to find the open gap, or simply abusing Glaze outside, the Raiders had no answers for him.
Raiders quarterback Geno Smith still made a ton of deep throws despite all the pressure, because that’s what Geno Smith does. And in the end, the Patriots’...
