In the final hours leading to the NFL's roster cutdown deadline, the Patriots have already made a flurry of moves, most of which haven't been all that surprising. Among the several releases they've already made were the most obvious players on the outskirts of the team, with many likely coming back to the practice squad for the upcoming season.
They did, however, settle one of the most competitive battles of the summer by releasing kicker Parker Romo and deciding that rookie Andres Borregales was going to hold that role instead.
It was a head-to-head competition throughout training camp, with plenty of ups and downs between the two that changed the projected winner almost daily. It looked like things had moved in Romo's favor after Borregales' weak preseason finale showing, but Mike Vrabel chose to go with the player they drafted in the sixth round earlier this year.
The hope is that this won't end up being a mistake, as finding a kicker post Stephen Gostkowski, or even more recently, Nick Folk, has been problematic in New England.
Patriots appear to have fixed their kicker problem, at least, for now
Because they ensured the drafting of the best kicker in the 2025 class, the assumption going into training camp was that it was Borregales' job and that was that. However, Romo came to compete, making it a trickier decision for the team to make.
Their performances throughout the summer were mostly neck and neck, making their preseason showings presumably count more. Even then, they were fairly even, which made Borregales' miss in the blowout loss to the Giants presumably hold more weight.
But because they used draft capital on him, there was a lot of belief from analysts that he would be the one the new regime went with. There's a chance they'll bring Romo back to the practice squad as insurance, and that might be the best idea after how poorly their kickers have performed in the past.
That was apparent last year when Jerod Mayo chose to go with seasoned veteran Joey Slye over Chad Ryland, which looked like the right decision at the time. Ryland had a terrible rookie year in 2023 and seemed to play himself off the roster. But when he left New England and joined the Cardinals, his career skyrocketed, and that has continued over the summer.
The same can be said about Bill Belichick's decision to keep Ryland over Nick Folk in 2023. Folk had been the best kicker the Patriots had since Gostkowski left years prior. Instead of keeping him around, the former head coach chose the rookie instead, which proved to be a big mistake.
This year's hope is that Borregales will be the right person for the job and remain so for a long time. The Patriots are out of chances of fumbling their kicker decision and need to cross their fingers they have finally hit the jackpot, or they'll be in the market for a new one (again) next year.