FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Patriots signed unrestricted free agent offensive lineman Bob Hallen today. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Hallen, 29, is entering his seventh NFL season and has played in 75 games with 44 starts. The 6-foot-3-inch, 295-pound native of Mentor, Ohio joins the Patriots after spending the last two seasons with the San Diego Chargers and the first four seasons of his career with the Atlanta Falcons. In his two seasons in San Diego, the versatile Kent State product started 13 of 16 total games, and saw time at center, left guard and right guard. Last season, Hallen played in three games with two starts before being placed on injured reserve on Oct. 8, 2003. In 2002, his first season with the Chargers, Hallen started at right guard for the first 10 games of the season and started 11 of the 13 games in which he played.
Hallen began his NFL career with the Atlanta Falcons, who drafted him in the second round (53rd overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft. He played in 12 regular-season games as a rookie in addition to all three playoff games as the Falcons won the NFC Championship and participated in Super Bowl XXXIII against Denver. From 1999 to 2001, Hallen started 31 of 47 games for Atlanta before signing with San Diego as an unrestricted free agent prior to the 2002 season.
