Ben Brown’s week started in Las Vegas, and ended with him starting in New England.

The Vicksburg native and former Ole Miss star got his first NFL start Sunday for the New England Patriots, just five days after the team signed him off the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice squad.

Brown had two practices with the Patriots before starting at center in Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans. Houston won, 41-21.

“It’s been crazy, for sure,” Brown, a St. Aloysius High School alum, said in a postgame interview with Masslive.com.

Brown spent the first five weeks of this season on the Raiders’ practice squad, but was not elevated to the 53-man active roster for any games.

Other teams can sign players from another’s practice squad and put them on their 53-man roster, and that’s what the Patriots did Wednesday afternoon. Brown flew from Las Vegas to Boston overnight, landed early Thursday morning, and went straight to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough for his team physical and first practice.

The Patriots’ starting center Nick Leverett has been battling an ankle injury. On Sunday morning, Brown learned he would be starting with his new team and making all of the line calls.

“I think the biggest thing for me was, I’ve been on several different teams, so some of these concepts schematically weren’t completely foreign to me. Just the verbiage and technique might be a little bit different. But I felt calm out there,” Brown told Masslive.com.

Being on the field Sunday was the high point of Brown’s winding journey in the NFL. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by Cincinnati in 2022, but tore his biceps tendon and spent the whole season on injured reserve.

The Bengals released him at the end of training camp in 2023. Brown signed with the Seattle Seahawks a couple days later, and he played as a backup — for two offensive series and on special teams — in one game.

The Seahawks released him in November 2023, and he later spent a week on the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad before signing with the Raiders. Las Vegas released him again at the end of training camp and re-signed him to the practice squad, where he stayed until the Patriots plucked him to fill a hole in their roster.

Sunday’s lineup on the offensive line was the sixth different one in six games for New England.

“I felt confident out there with the guys,” Brown told Masslive.com. “Obviously it’s tough not being able to get the win, but I felt good with my responsibilities.”