BuffettNews.com

The Coast Guard is searching for New England Patriots defensive end Marquise Hill, who fell off a jet ski with a woman in Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, according to a radio report.

"I have hope. He's a strong kid," Hill's agent, Albert Elias, told WWL Radio in New Orleans.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Thomas Atkinson told WWL Radio that a Good Samaritan on shore heard cries for help and rescuers found the woman clinging 'onto a piling near the shore.'

Elias told WWL Radio that people shouldn't fear the worst because his client can swim. "If we could get people out there to look for him … he can swim," Elias told the radio station.

The woman said that Hill had been with her on the piling but "as soon as they spotted him, they attempted to maneuver their boat into position to pick him up and lost sight of him," Atkinson told WWL Radio.

Hill hasn't been spotted since 9 p.m., according to the Coast Guard. Atkinson told WWL Radio that neither Hill nor the woman were wearing a life jacket.

Hill, who is 6-foot-6 and weighs 300 pounds, was drafted by the Patriots in the second round of the 2004 draft.