While in New England, Troy Brown and Mike Vrabel resisted labels: Under Bill Belichick, they were wide receivers or linebackers in names only. In truth, they were football players who could be moved from offense to defense and back again at a moments notice.

Is Connor Barwin the evolution of the species? Some believe the 22-year-old — a defensive end/linebacker/tight end from the University of Cincinnati who will almost certainly be taken on the first day of next month’s NFL Draft — is Mike Vrabel for a new generation.

“Connon Barwin is interesting,” said NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock of Barwin, who has been linked to the Patriots in several mock drafts. “I thought he was a defensive end because of his pass rush ability, and when I saw him run routes at the Senior Bowl, I thought, ‘Boy, that’s an athletic kid who can stick his foot in the ground and catch the football.’

“I’m not even sure if he knows what he is right now. I think different NFL teams have different opinions on him. The one thing he does bring is versatility, and if he can save a roster spot, there’s even more value.”

He certainly has the NFL establishment confused. While everyone is in agreement that he’s a first-rounder, no one is quite sure where he will be plugged in once he gets to the pros: Will he be a defensive end? He played defensive end as a senior last year at Cincinnati, and finished with 15½ tackles for loss, 11 sacks and seven pass breakups. And that’s where he worked out last month at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Is he going to be an outside linebacker? His size and speed would certainly lead some to believe he would translate well to the OLB spot in a 3-4 scheme in the NFL. It was the same route Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi took — both defensive linemen who were too undersized to make the transition to the trenches in the NFL, they flourished at linebacker in the pros.

Or is he a tight end? He had 31 catches for 399 yards and a pair of touchdowns as a junior with the Bearcats. Athletic enough to play on the Bearcats basketball team, his hands and athleticism in space — as well as his excellent speed — have drawn comparisons to Tony Gonzalez.

But does he only have to be plugged into just one spot? Barwin certainly doesn’t think so. As the draft approaches, he’s resisted the NFL’s desire to compartmentalize his abilities. His staunch independence to be broken down can be seen when a questioner asks if there’s one player he’s tried to emulate over the course of his career.

“No, there really wasn’t just one guy. For me, it was always just all about playing hard. That’s how I’ve done it,” Barwin said. “I watched a lot of NFL guys this past spring after my coach at Cincinnati told me he was going to move me to defense, and I liked Dwight Freeney’s game. I tried to use some of those spin moves, but that didn’t work, so I just decided to be myself.”

Barwin first emerged on the national stage at the Senior Bowl, where he had the chance to work on both sides of the football for a collection of NFL coaches and scouts. For the North, he played about 20 snaps at tight end before moving to the other side of the ball at rush end. There, he played a handful of snaps and knocked down a pass. It was the first act in a very public coming out party, and Barwin credits Bengals coach Marvin Lewis for allowing him to show the assembled pro football cognoscenti the full range of his skills.

“A lot of coaches would have said, ‘I’m here for a week to coach these guys and just get back home,’” Barwin said of Lewis. “But he took the time to meet with me, to work with me. He really looked out for me, and he didn’t have to. He saw how much I could do, and we worked together, and saw I was good enough to do both.”

The next step was at the combine: Barwin had the top performance among the defensive linemen in the vertical jump (40½ inches), three-cone drill (6.87 seconds), 20-yard shuttle run (4.18 seconds) and tied for best broad jump (10-feet-8). He was second in the 40-yard dash at 4.66 seconds.

The Patriots almost certainly had their eye on the 22-year-old, and worked him out as a tight end earlier this month. Barwin is familiar with the Patriots and their schemes. He knows about the Vrabel comparisons — after all, it’s not every day you have an outside linebacker line up at tight end in the red zone.

“I can’t say I’ve studied his game, but I’m familiar with what he’s done with New England,” Barwin said of Vrabel, who caught 10 touchdown passes over the course of his career with the Patriots, and was the first player in NFL history to register two touchdowns and a sack in a single game.

“I know he played outside linebacker, they used him as tight end in the red zone and he caught some touchdown passes. Besides the fact that he went to a catholic high school — a Jesuit high school like myself — not much else.”

Jesuit education aside, the connections are obvious: Both are similar body types: Barwin is 6-foot-4, 255 pounds. Vrabel is 6-foot-4, 261 pounds. Both fit the mold of the New England model, which is to seek out smart, tough, fast, disciplined football players. When you throw in Belichick’s fondness for versatility and the recent trade of Vrabel to Kansas City, it has some thinking the Patriots selection of Barwin at No. 23 would make a lot of sense. (“Barwin could pass for Vrabel's twin as far as on-field skill sets are concerned,” wrote CBS Sportsline draft analyst Chad Reuter.)

Barwin himself does nothing to dismiss the notion. He said he’s met with New England’s tight end coach, and worked out as a tight end earlier this month for Patriots’ officials. In fact, New England has given Barwin the biggest shock of his post-college career.

“My meetings have been pretty standard — they’ve been pretty routine interviews. The only curveball I got was at the Senior Bowl from New England,” Barwin said. “I met with two scouts from New England, and they brought up that I had gotten in trouble my freshman year for throwing water balloons out the window.

“Now, I tell every team about it ahead of time, just in case.”

Christopher Price covers the Patriots for WEEI.com.