The New England Patriots have until Tuesday afternoon to trim their roster to 53 players, but they got to work early. On Monday, the club announced it had cut 14 players from the team.
Running back DeShawn Fenwick, wide receiver Kawann 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 Mickey Victor, and long snapper Tucker Edgington were all let go.
To keep track of every Patriots transaction, be sure to visit our up-to-date cutdown tracker as well as our roster tracker. As for Monday's moves, here's a big picture look at what they mean for the club.
The Patriots start with the easy stuff
Of course, no cut is inherently “easy.” In this case, 14 people are out of a job; some of whom have spent most of their lives pursuing their dream of playing in the NFL, and that dream may now be over.
The easy part we're talking about has to do with the roster itself. To be honest, none of the 14 players were even close to competing for a spot on the 53-man roster. The only exception might be Sam Roberts, whose experience could have been of some benefit to the team, as the future of his fellow defensive tackle Christian Barmore is uncertain.
In the end, neither his nor anyone else's release was a surprise. Purely from that perspective, the hardest part is going to come on Tuesday.
After this at least 22 more steps will be taken
After releasing defensive tackle Mike Purcell last week, the Patriots came out of their preseason finale and into cutdown week with 89 players under contract (plus another, defensive lineman Jotham Russell, on roster exemptions). With 14 more cuts made on Monday, the roster is now at 75 — with at least 22 changes to be made in the next few hours.
The “at least” part has to do with the team's willingness to explore the waiver wire and potentially add some outside talent in the coming days. With New England having a third priority, they're in prime position to bolster the roster in this way, but obviously they can't go beyond the NFL-mandated 53-man limit.
“I don't want to overdo anything in terms of the waiver wire. We're always looking for ways to improve the roster,” head coach Jerod Mayo said Monday. “I would say Elliott's in the middle [Wolf] “Myself and I, we’re on the same page, whether it’s through trades, through the waiver wire, whatever it is, bringing in a guy off the street, we’re always in the mindset of, ‘How can we make this roster better, and how can we continue to improve as a team moving forward?’”
By 4 p.m., the Patriots must be under the 53-player roster limit. They can reach that limit by releasing players, or trading them or sending them to the injured list.
Positional fighting is still ongoing
As mentioned above, none of the team's moves on Monday were particularly surprising. This means that roster competitions at positions like wide receiver, cornerback or kicker will remain alive and well until the final cutdown day.
Obviously, this could change quite quickly on Tuesday. At this point, however, there is no indication of which way things are going in many places.
No real operational change under the new arrangement
For the first time in nearly a quarter-century, Bill Belichick is not overseeing the Patriots' cutdown proceedings. Longtime head coach and quasi-general manager Bill Belichick parted ways with the team in January, paving the way for two of his former colleagues — Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf — to take over.
Both Mayo and Wolf are newcomers when it comes to roster construction, but as far as cutdown procedures go, it appears they have followed Belichick's blueprint. Last year, the Patriots entered the final day of roster cuts with 77 players; this year, as noted above, they're at 75.
Last August, Belichick explained the reasoning behind completing Phase 1 steps quickly.
“There's a number of reasons for that … one of them is volume,” Belichick said at the time. “We've had to make 37 transactions, and in some cases when the decision is clear, I think it helps the player get a little bit of a head start on their future. If we don't have a place for them here, because of the relationship we have with those guys, they've worked hard; they've done what we asked them to do; they've done their best, maybe there's a place for them somewhere else.”
“We're giving them a chance to get a little bit ahead of the rest of the guys and at least now they can try out something and their agents can start working on it. … When a player is released, he has a chance to see if he's going to have an opportunity to join the practice squad or something else somewhere else in the league.”
Mayo and Wolf appear to be sticking to the same strategy.
Dead cap numbers are rising
All of the players let go by the Patriots were low-priced, meaning their contracts — under the top-51 rule in effect next week — don't take up much room on their current salary cap. In fact, the team's cap number $50.22 million (via Miguel Benzon) There was no change at all on Monday.
What is changing 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 salary: 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 deals.
A combined $225,000 will go to New England, unless another team claims them on waivers.