Former New England Patriots wide receiver Chris Hogan has declared for the Premier Lacrosse League’s 2021 entry draft.
I have signed with @premierlacrosse for the 2021 season. As many of you know, my roots are in lacrosse, and I’m excited to fight for a roster spot with the best in the world! #LFG
— Chris Hogan (@ChrisHogan_15) February 13, 2021
Hogan, whose move was first reported Saturday by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, was a first-team All-ECAC selection and team captain for the Penn State lacrosse program. His fifth year of NCAA eligibility was spent on the football field at Monmouth.
The 33-year-old New Jersey native originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2011, and made stops with the San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills before signing a three-year, $12 million offer sheet with head coach Bill Belichick’s Patriots.
“I think there’s a ton of carryover with the two sports, lacrosse and football,” Hogan said on his introductory Patriots conference call in 2016. “Obviously, there’s eye-hand coordination and you have to have really great eye-hand coordination in the sport of lacrosse and obviously in my position specifically. I think that there’s also carryover to when I have the ball in lacrosse, that field awareness and being able to move in the open field and dodge people. You can carry that over and say it’s the same aspect as having a football in your hands and having that in the open field.
“As far as Coach Belichick, yeah, he’s a huge lacrosse fan. I’m pretty sure I played against his son [Steve Belichick] at Rutgers my sophomore and junior years. There’s always that. We have that lacrosse connection.”
Hogan went on to catch 141 passes for 2,193 yards and 16 touchdowns between his regular seasons and postseasons in New England, earning a pair of Super Bowl rings across 49 games. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound target signed with the Carolina Panthers in 2019 and began 2020 with the New York Jets, completing the AFC East tour before being released from injured reserve in the final weeks of the campaign.
The Premier Lacrosse League’s eight-team, three-round entry draft is set for March 25. It follows the March 11 expansion draft and precedes the April 6 college draft.