The New England Patriots have until Tuesday afternoon to trim their roster to 53 players, but they started working on it early. On Monday, the club announced it had released 14 players.
Running back Deshaun Fenwick, wide receiver Kawaan Baker, tight ends La’Michael Pettway and Jacob Warren, offensive linemen Zuri Henry and Charles Turner III, defensive linemen Sam Roberts, Josiah Bronson, William Bradley-King and Christian McCarroll, linebacker Steele Chambers, cornerbacks Azizi Hearn and Mikey Victor, and long snapper Tucker Addington were all released.
To keep up with every Patriots transaction, be sure to check out our trade tracker as well as our roster tracker. As for Monday’s moves, here’s a general look at what they mean for the club.
Patriots start with the easiest
Obviously, no downsizing is “easy.” In this case, 14 people are out of work, some of whom have spent most of their lives chasing their dream of playing in the NFL, and that dream may have just ended.
The easy part we’re referring to is the roster itself. Frankly, none of the 14 players released were in a position to compete for a spot on the 53-man roster. The only exception might be Sam Roberts, whose experience could have been of some value to the team with fellow defensive tackle Christian Barmore’s future uncertain.
In the end, neither his nor anyone else’s exit was a big surprise. From this point of view, the hardest part awaits us on Tuesday.
At least 22 other movements will follow
After already releasing defensive tackle Mike Purcell last week, the Patriots came out of their final preseason game and entered roster cuts with 89 players under contract (plus one more, defensive lineman Jotham Russell, on waivers). With 14 more cuts made Monday, the roster now stands at 75 players, leaving at least 22 moves to be made in the next few hours.
The “at least” part has to do with the team’s willingness to explore the waiver list and potentially add outside talent in the coming days. With New England as the third priority, they’re in a prime position to bolster the roster that way, but obviously can’t go beyond the NFL’s 53-man roster limit.
“I don’t want to get too deep into the waiver list. We’re always looking for ways to improve the roster,” head coach Jerod Mayo said Monday. “I would say that between Eliot (Wolf) and I, we’re on the same page, whether it’s through trades, waivers, whatever it may be, getting the player off the street, we’re always in the mindset of, ‘How can we improve this roster and how can we continue to improve as a team going forward?’”
By 4 p.m. ET, the Patriots must be under the aforementioned 53-man roster limit. They can do this by releasing players, trading them, or sending them to injured reserve.
Positional battles are still ongoing
As noted above, none of Monday’s roster moves came as a particular surprise. That means the roster competitions for positions like wide receiver, cornerback, and kicker remain alive and well heading into the final day of cutdowns.
Of course, the situation could change quite quickly on Tuesday. At this point, however, there are few indications of where things will go on many levels.
No real operational change under new regime
For the first time in nearly a quarter-century, Bill Belichick is not overseeing the Patriots’ roster-cutting efforts. The longtime head coach and quasi-general manager, of course, left the team in January, opening the door for two of his former lieutenants — Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf — to take over.
Mayo and Wolf are both rookies when it comes to roster construction, but they appear to have followed Belichick’s model when it comes to roster cuts. Last year, the Patriots entered the final day of roster cuts with 77 players on their roster; this year, as noted above, they have 75.
Last August, Belichick explained the reasoning behind the move to implement the first wave of moves as early as possible.
“There’s a number of reasons … one of them is just volume,” Belichick said at the time. “We have to make 37 trades and in some cases, when the decision is clear, I think it just helps the player get a little bit of a head start on his future. If we don’t have a spot for him here, because of the relationship we have with these guys, they’ve worked hard, they’ve done what we’ve asked them to do, they’ve done their best, maybe there’s a spot for them somewhere else.”
“We’re giving them an opportunity to get a head start on the pack and at least now they can start testing the waters and their agent can start working on it. … When a player is released, he has an opportunity to start looking at whether there’s going to be an opportunity on the practice squad, or something else elsewhere in the league.”
Judging by appearances, Mayo and Wolf are sticking to that strategy.
The number of undead increases
All of the players the Patriots let go were in the low-cost category, meaning their contracts — under the Top-51 rule that still stands through next week — didn’t take up much, if any, room on their current salary cap. In fact, the team’s salary cap was $50.22 million (via Miguel Benzan) did not change at all on Monday.
What changes is the amount of dead cap, which is money not invested in a player currently on the roster. Guarantees such as signing bonuses fall into this category. In the case of four undrafted rookies, the Patriots could also absorb some previously guaranteed salaries: TE Jacob Warren ($25,000), OT Zuri Henry ($25,000), OL Charles Turner III ($100,000) and LB Steele Chambers ($75,000) all have partially guaranteed contracts.
Unless another team claims them on waivers, that combined $225,000 will go to New England’s accounts.
