Over the next 36 hours, the NFL's roster cuts and the players who will become available for other teams to sign will dominate the news. The Patriots are considered one of the teams that will be looking at the new class of free agents to boost their roster further, especially since perhaps their biggest weakness will be a lack of depth in multiple areas.
That is a concern that has plagued them for too long now, and despite their best efforts to drastically revamp the team ahead of the 2025 season, Mike Vrabel and Co. don't appear to have been able to do enough to feel assured with the roster.
It could inevitably lead them to make some interesting decisions when narrowing the team down to just 53 players, which is something that ESPN's Mike Reiss projects they will do at one position in particular.
There's good reason to believe the Patriots will be overly cautious with their roster cuts
Although their secondary appears to be one of their stronger units team-wide, Reiss believes the Patriots will have a legitimate reason to keep a deep cornerback room beyond starters Carlton Davis III and Christian Gonzalez.
In fact, in his latest roster projection, he has the Patriots holding onto six cornerbacks, which is a lot for any team, but it's for good reason and might save them at some point during the season.
"One theme across the NFL seems to be that many teams are looking for cornerbacks, so keeping a sixth -- which some might view as a luxury -- protects the team from possibly losing a developmental prospect such as Minor on waivers. Minor, who was the final pick of the 2025 NFL draft (No. 257), has displayed some sticky coverage this preseason, while James (2024 sixth-round pick of the Seahawks) was one of the surprise stories of training camp."
Fortunately, beyond their star-studded duo in Davis and Gonzalez, they have had some standout players to make up the rest of the cornerback room, as Reiss mentioned.
Besides Kobee Minor and DJ James, they also have the incredibly versatile Marcus Jones, who is a roster lock for multiple reasons, and the rising star of Alex Austin, who really came into himself during the 2024 season.
That's reason enough to keep a deep room, on top of not liking the risk of outright releasing them or even moving them to the practice squad, which still opens them up to being stolen by another team around the league.
With concerns surrounding Davis' injury history, keeping a deep room is smart for that reason, too. It might not be a typical decision to keep that many cornerbacks, but the Patriots are not in a position to be too risky with their roster, especially when their defense is expected to be the more dominant side of the team yet again.
The hope, of course, would be that this isn't something that will backfire, as keeping such a deep cornerback roster would mean they'd have to cut players elsewhere who might be needed down the road. It's a gamble they'd have to be willing to make and be good with, assuming they feel comfortable with the other decisions they make.