Patriots bring back cornerback on futures contract

The New England Patriots are now up to 14 players signed to futures contracts. On Tuesday, the team announced cornerback Brandon Crossley has signed a futures deal with the team.

Crossley, 25, joined the Patriots as a UDFA out of SMU back in the spring. He was released after training camp but re-joined the team on the practice squad in mid-November, and spent the next month and a half in New England before being released after the regular season. He did not appear in any regular season games.

Now, he'll be back with the Patriots for the start of the new league year in March. Futures contracts are typically minimum-money deals that don't officially kick in until that date (March 11 this year). That allows teams to retain practice squad players before the roster limit expands to 90 players, without having to make any corresponding moves. Only players who were not on an active roster at the end of the previous season are eligible for futures contracts.

Initially, the Patriots signed 11 of their practice squad players to futures deals early last week. That was followed by two more futures contracts later in the week. There's no official limit to how many futures deals a team can sign as long as they remain under the 90-player limit, but typically teams come in well under that to leave room for free agents and draft picks.