4 players the Patriots were right to part ways with this offseason
Throughout Bill Belichick's tenure as the Patriots head coach and general manager, some memorable roster decisions seem to be still head-scratchers many years later.
Besides his repeated bad signings of receivers, he became known for moving on from talented guys a lot sooner than most would like, which only looked like brilliance a few times throughout the two decades he was calling the shots. He became known for his impressive instincts of when it was best to release or trade a player like he could somehow see into the future, and he was often proven correct.
It's still too early in Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf's tenures in charge of roster decisions to determine whether they have made the right choices more often.
However, they were right to move on from a handful of free agents this offseason, which should definitely count for something.
4 players the Patriots were right to part ways with this offseason
Mac Jones
When you're a team looking for your next franchise quarterback, the plan is never to move on from the one you believed would be the guy after just three seasons. But that's the position the Patriots found themselves in this offseason with Mac Jones, which became a Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf problem after Bill Belichick's departure.
Regardless of how Jones' career had gotten to the point of being benched mid-season, it was clear the Patriots were looking to replace him with their high first-round draft pick last month.
This forced them to reevaluate what to do with the quarterback since releasing him wouldn't cost much, but his trade market seemed nonexistent.
That changed when, surprisingly, the Jaguars decided to trade for the quarterback to play behind Trevor Lawrence, the first overall pick in the same draft Jones was picked in three years ago. It didn't seem like a team he would want to go to, as he had made it clear he wanted to remain a starter.
But reports revealed Mayo included Jones in the trade conversations, and the quarterback wanted to go back to his hometown of Jacksonville, and it just so happened they were interested.
It was the best-case scenario for all parties; the Patriots got some trade capital in return, and Jones went to a team he wanted to be with. This allowed the easy additions of Drake Maye and Joe Milton III through the draft and an easy hand washing of the Mac Jones experiment in Foxboro.