Even with NFL free agency winding down, the New England Patriots continue being active building their roster. As part of that process, the team made a series of moves on Friday.
In total, four players were released: the tenures of offensive linemen Caleb Jones and Lecitus Smith as well as linebackers Curtis Jacobs and Andrew Parker Jr. all came to an end. Let’s assess what the moves mean for the team.
No surprises
The Patriots entered Friday with 74 players on their roster. All four of the players released Friday found themselves toward the bottom of that list: they all projected as depth options or potential camp bodies at their respective positions.
Seeing New England part ways with all four of them does therefore ultimately not come as a surprise. The chances of Jones, Smith, Jacob and Parker Jr. making the team were slim to begin with.
Christian Elliss hint?
Among those 74 players mentioned above is linebacker Christian Elliss, who the Patriots tendered as a restricted free agent earlier this month. However, he recently signed an offer sheet with the Las Vegas Raiders, and could be on his way out of town: if New England declines to match the offer by Monday, the 26-year-old will leave without any compensation coming the Patriots’ way.
One of Friday’s moves in particular might be a hint toward the team’s plans: like Elliss, Curtis Jacobs is a rotational off-the-ball linebacker who also brings multi-unit special teams experience to the table. From that perspective, releasing the 23-year-old former waiver claim could be a sign of things to come.
However, we would be a bit cautious reading too much into the move being connected to the Ellis situation. For one, recent linebacker addition Jack Gibbens has a profile even more similar to Elliss’ than Jacobs’, something that is also true for current Patriots LB Monty Rice (who, like Gibbens, played under Mike Vrabel in Tennessee). Additionally, Jacobs’ chances of making the team appeared to be slim in the first place.
Thinning out the herd
What the four moves do more than anything else is remove a layer of depth at offensive tackle, along the interior offensive line, and at off-the-ball linebacker. Looking at our up-to-date Patriots roster, the three position groups now look as follows:
Offensive tackle (5): Morgan Moses (76 | RT), Vederian Lowe (59), Demontrey Jacobs (75), Caedan Wallace (70), Sidy Sow (62),
Caleb Jones (76)Interior offensive line (8): Michael Onwenu (71 | RG), Garrett Bradbury (55), Cole Strange (69), Layden Robinson (63), Ben Brown (77), Wes Schweitzer (66), Jake Andrews (67),
Lecitus Smith (68),Tyrese Robinson (65)Linebacker (6): Robert Spillane (14), Ja’Whaun Bentley (8), Jack Gibbens (51), Jahlani Tavai (48), Christian Elliss (53),
Curtis Jacobs (52), Monty Rice (45),Andrew Parker Jr. (47)
As can be seen, the four releases have a minimal impact on the top of the depth chart. If anything, they create space for other depth signings to happen between now and the draft.
At the moment, the Patriots have 70 players on their 90-man offseason roster, including Christian Elliss. They are the owners of nine draft picks at the moment.
Minor cap savings
Even though the Patriots parted ways with four players, the salary cap impact is marginal. In total, the moves created a mere $140,000 in net savings, according to cap expert Miguel Benzan.
The reason for that is that only Jones and Smith counted against the Top 51 rule at the time of their respective released: their $1.03 million salaries qualified among the team’s biggest 51 cap hits, which in turn made space for lower-compensated players to move up the list. Those players are QB Joe Milton and TE Jaheim Bell, who are both on $960,000 — a cumulative difference of, you guessed it, $140,000.
Meanwhile, neither Jacobs ($960k) nor Parker Jr. ($840k) were in that Top 51 group. Their releases have no impact on New England’s still-substantial salary cap number.
