We propose and analyze an augmented mixed formulation for the time-dependent Brinkman–Forchheimer equations written in terms of vorticity, velocity and pressure. The weak formulation is based on the introduction of suitable least squares terms arising from the incompressibility condition and the constitutive equation relating the vorticity and velocity. We establish existence and uniqueness of a solution to the weak formulation, and derive the corresponding stability bounds, employing classical results on nonlinear monotone operators. We then propose a semidiscrete continuous-in-time approximation based on stable Stokes elements for the velocity and pressure, and continuous or discontinuous piecewise polynomial spaces for the vorticity. In addition, by means of the backward Euler time discretization, we introduce a fully discrete finite element scheme. We prove well-posedness and derive the stability bounds for both schemes, and establish the corresponding error estimates. We provide several numerical results verifying the theoretical rates of convergence and illustrating the performance and flexibility of the method for a range of domain configurations and model parameters.