Now that the New England Patriots have completed their preseason schedule, it’s time for attention to turn to roster cuts. They have to be down to 53 players by this Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.
Who will be among those final cuts? Who might have saved their jobs with a strong close to the preseason? Let’s take a look in our final roster projection of the summer.
Something to keep in mind here – there are really two ‘initial roster’ checkpoints for the Patriots. There will be the initial group of 53 they have on Tuesday afternoon, but there will likely be further moves before we get their Week 1 roster for the Raiders game. For the purpose of this exercise we’ll be looking more at the ‘Week 1 roster.’
That’s because Vrabel hinted at significant changes could happen in the window in between the two after Thursday’s preseason finale. Asked how he feels about the roster coming away from Thursday night’s game, Vrabel instantly brought up potential external additions…
“We’re going to continually try to strengthen the roster every way we can. There’s a couple options, right? You can try to trade for players. You could try to claim some players next week,” he explained. “Again, we’re always going to be trying to strengthen the roster. That’s what we’ll try to do here over the course of the next 10 days.”
With that in mind, what might the Week 1 roster look like for the Patriots? Let’s get into it…
NOTE: Players are listed alphabetically, with order not reflecting a potential depth chart. Rookies are in italics
Quarterbacks (2)
Mike Vrabel said on Friday the team would contemplate adding a third quarterback either to the 53-man roster or practice squad, but given the depth issues else where is probably makes more sense for that player to not be taking up a spot on the active roster. It wouldn’t be surprising if there are ultimately three quarterbacks in the building, but for now just two of those need to be on the roster.
Running backs (3)
-Antonio Gibson
-TreVeyon Henderson
-Rhamondre Stevenson
There’s a role for JaMycal Hasty on this team, playing in the kicking game and being a multi-role backup at running back. However, given he was un-signed until the first week of August the Patriots can probably get him onto the practice squad for now.
Changes from last week: CUT JaMycal Hasty
Wide receivers (6)
-Kayshon Boutte
-Efton Chism
-Stefon Diggs
-DeMario Douglas
-Mack Hollins
-Kyle Williams
-Kendrick Bourne (IR-designated to return)
Changes from last week: None
Assuming Williams’ injury isn’t one that will cause him to miss significant time in the regular season – and keep in mind there’s still two weeks until the Patriots play their next game, giving Bourne one of the two IR-designated to return spots makes sense to keep the veteran around without using up a roster spot.
Javon Baker has made a strong push thanks to his special teams play, encapsulated by him pushing a blocker into a returner to force a turnover on Thursday night. However he’s struggled as a receiver, and those issues should allow the Patriots to get him to the practice squad. He’s a player who could make the initial initial 53-man roster, but be cut to create space for another player before Week 1.
Tight ends/fullbacks (3)
-Hunter Henry
-Austin Hooper
-Jack Westover
Changes from last week: None
Before getting injured and missing the last week, Westover looked like the team’s starting fullback. If he’s good to go he can still make the team in that role given it’s an every-week position and practice squad elevations are limited to just three games per season. If anything pushes him off the roster it would most likely be the Patriots finding another fullback on the external market.
Offensive line (9)
-C Garrett Bradbury
-C/G Ben Brown
-T Marcus Bryant
-T Will Campbell
-T Morgan Moses
-G Mike Onwenu
-C/G Jared Wilson
-TBD Tackle
-TBD Guard
Each of the last two seasons, the Patriots have added multiple offensive linemen via waiver claims and/or trades during roster cuts. While the goal should be getting away from making that a pattern, with much of the backup group struggling down the stretch this summer the Patriots may need to look to the external market again to round out their depth. Keep in mind the Patriots already lost a veteran that seemed to be in the mix when Wes Schweitzer retired back in the spring.
Vederian Lowe, Cole Strange, and Caedan Wallace are all players who could make the initial roster on Tuesday but get cut if the team finds players they trust more.
Changes from last week: CUT Vederian Lowe, Cole Srange, Caedan Wallace, ADD TBD Tackle, TBD Guard
Defensive line (5)
-Christian Barmore
-Joshua Farmer
-Jeremiah Pharms
-Khyiris Tonga
-Milton Williams
Farmer was likely always going to make the team, but a strong performance on Thursday night was encouraging for the depth of this group. Pharms played late in to Thursday’s game, and is a candidate to be replaced by an external addition. Simply adding another player to this group for more depth could be in play as well.
David Olajiga should stick around on the practice squad as the International Pathway Program player.
Changes from last week: None
EDGE rushers (7)
-K’Lavon Chaisson
-Anfernee Jennings
-Truman Jones
-Harold Landry
-Elijah Ponder
-Bradyn Swinson
-Keion White
This is a crowded group, but there are multiple potential core special teams players here in Jones, Ponder, and potentially even Jennings. We’re not looking too much into White’s extended usage on Thursday night – they’d be razor thin in terms of NFL experience here if they let him go (unless it’s in a player-for-player swap).
Changes from last week: None
Linebackers (4)
-Christian Elliss
-Jack Gibbens
-Robert Spillane
-TBD Linebacker
-Jahlani Tavai (IR-designated to return)
Three linebackers is simply not enough depth. No players really emerged to claim the fourth spot this summer – if it’s anybody, Marte Mapu had a solid final week of the preseason. If that’s ultimately too little too late for the coaching staff, this is certainly another spot where it would make sense for the team to look elsewhere.
Changes from last week: IR Jahlani Tavai, ADD TBD Linebacker
Cornerbacks (5)
-Alex Austin
-Carlton Davis
-Christian Gonzalez
-DJ James
-Marcus Jones
Given Gonzalez has missed significant time this summer and Davis and Jones have significant injury histories, it might make sense for the Patriots to be deeper at cornerback. Heading into Thursday night there were multiple cornerbacks who seemed to be surging and could be making a push for a sixth spot.
However, just about that entire group had a rough game against the Giants. Kobee Minor was probably the best, and could be on the roster on Tuesday before other additions are made. An external addition at cornerback might make sense, but the Patriots might be deep enough to get by rotating practice squad call-ups of Minor and others for a few weeks to start the season. That depth could also come from help at the safety position which we’ll get to next.
Changes from last week: None
Safeties (6)
-Kyle Dugger
-Jaylinn Hawkins
-Jabrill Peppers
-Brenden Schooler
-Craig Woodson
-TBD Safety
We’ve been back and forth about Dugger throught the summer, but with Vrabel being complimentary of him after an improved showing in the preseason finale, we have him sneaking on the roster to start the season. Still, the trade rumors could continue as the season goes on.
We have our fourth and final external addition here too. If the team is unsure about Dugger- even if they keep him – that gives them three safeties they feel good about. Increasing the depth would make sense. Ideally that ‘TBD Safety’ would be more of a hybrid safety/corner.
Changes from last week: ADD Kyle Dugger, TBD Safety
Specialists (3)
-K Andy Borregales
-P Bryce Baringer
-LS Julian Ashby
So far this summer (there are two more practices on the schedule before roster cuts), Parker Romo has been the better field goal kicker. He’s hit 34 of his 38 field goal attempts (90.7% of his kicks), with three of those four misses coming in a single practice a few weeks ago. Meanwhile Borregales has hit 46 of his 55 kicks, or (83.6%).
However this is about projecting what the Patriots will do, and over the past two weeks it’s looked more and more like they plan to give the job to Borregales. The rookie took every single field goal and extra point attempt on Thursday, as well as all the kickoffs.
Why go with Borregales? It could be that he’s looked better on kickoffs – which look like they’ll be a much more significant play based on this summer. It could simply be about potential. Whatever the reason, that’s how the workload has been split up so far, so that’s what we’re projecting.
Changes from last week: None
On the bubble
-Truman Jones
-Kyle Dugger
-Jeremiah Pharms
-Javon Baker
-Cole Strange
-Marte Mapu
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