New England Patriots: Who Makes The Cut?

Right now, every NFL team’s roster is sitting at, or floating just under the 90 man maximum. So, while there isn’t much going on between now and training camp at the end of July, I figured it’d be fun to think about who will be cut in order to get to 75 players. Let’s call this segment “New England Patriots: Who Makes The Cut?”

There are a bunch of players on every roster that you’ve never heard of, and probably never will hear of again, which is fine. These players will probably be cut well before preseason even starts for more camp bodies. The following are a few names, some you may have heard of, that I believe will be cut by the Patriots in order to get the roster to the 75 man maximum.

QB

No one gets cut, everybody stays for obvious reasons. Brady is the best QB ever and is still going strong, Garoppolo is the QB of the distant future and Mallett is insurance in case Brady gets hurt.

RB

Jonas Gray is probably the first RB out in New England, there is a lot of talent at this position and I don’t see Gray stepping up to the plate.

WR

Jeremy Johnson, Wilson Van Hooser and Reese Wiggins will all be cut. Who are they you ask? Exactly, no one knows. The WR position is deep this year, so undrafted unknowns probably won’t make the opening roster like Kenbrell Thompkins did last year.

TE

This is easily the most nerve-racking position to think about. Everyone wants Dustin Keller or Jermichael Finley. But on the roster right now the position has an injury plagued super-star, a primary blocker, an unknown, a FB convert and 2 UDFAs, really intimidating right? The cuts I see here are D.J. Williams and Asa Watson. Both aren’t that impressive of players or physical specimens like Justin Jones. Jones’ size alone will probably get him through the first wave of cuts. All of the years that Williams spent in New England have amounted to nothing, absolutely nothing and Watson hasn’t been impressive in practice.

OL

Cave Braxton (great name) was signed as an UDFA, then cut and resigned to the practice squad. With this much talent on the roster, I see him being cut to make room for more practice squad players. Chris Martin, Chris Barker and Jordan Devey will most likely be cut thanks to the addition of Cameron Fleming and Bryan Stork pushing others down the depth chart.

DL

This year’s DL is stacked all around. There is talent everywhere; the best bet for an early cut is Seali’I Epenesa. Epenesa was recently signed as an UDFA, so expect him to be released early since he was signed so late.

LB

Deontae Skinner and Darius Fleming will both be cut fairly early on. Both were undrafted and the only reason they might stay around is due to a lack of depth at the position and needed camp bodies.

DB

The best position on the team that doesn’t have someone named Tom Brady running the show. The DB position is so deep that talent is being pushed out of it into the weaker Safety position. The DBs that will be cut are Daxton Swanson, Travis Hawkins and Justin Green. Swanson and Hawkins are UDFAs and Green didn’t do anything in the 2 games he played last year. There’s just no room for them.

Overview

Almost all of the names mentioned won’t be on the Patriots roster when the season kicks off in a few months, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were bigger names cut moving forward as the roster goes from 75 to 53 players.

Who do you think will be released? Did I get get it right? Which unknown player do you think will make the New England Patriots opening day roster? Comment below.