Patriots May Cut Ties With $11 Million RB After Christian McCaffrey-Like Signing

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Patriots running back Antonio Gibson will now need to fight for his job in training camp.

The New England Patriots new head coach Mike Vrabel has been systematically cutting as many ties as he can with the Bill Belichick era. In March, the Patriots released 10-year veteran center David Andrews, who was one of only two players remaining on the roster who played on a Super Bowl-winning team for the legendary coach.

On Tuesday, Vrabel got rid of the last one. The Patriots said goodbye to 33-year-old long snapper Joe Cardona — who is also an active lieutenant is the United States Naval Reserve — the longest-tenured Patriots player and the final one on the roster with a Patriots Super Bowl ring. In fact, Cardona had two rings, one from New England’s Super Bowl 51 win over the Atlanta Falcons, the second from the Patriots’ win two years later over the Los Angeles Rams.

Cardona also played in a Super Bowl the Patriots did not win, on February 4, 2018 when New England fell 41-33 to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Undrafted Free Agent Could Make RB Exendable

On Wednesday, the Patriots declined the fifth-year option on offensive lineman Cole Strange, meaning that the 26-year-old will be fighting for a job on this year’s roster and if he sticks with the team, his entire season will be a long audition for next year.

Belichick stunned the NFL by making Strange a first round draft pick in 2022, 29th overall. Most projections saw the Chattanooga product as a third or fourth round pick at best.

But just as Cardona became expendable when the Patriots spent a seventh round pick on Vanderbilt’s Julian Ashby, the first long snapper taken by any team in the draft since 2021, now one of the first acquisitions of the Jerod Mayo era may also find himself the odd man out after Vrabel signed undrafted free agent running back Lan Larison out of the University of California at Davis.

Larison has already been called by some commentators “the next Christian McCaffrey,” a reference to the two-time first team All-Pro San Francisco 49ers running back, who in 2023 rushed for an NFL-leading 1,459 yards and was named Offensive Player of the Year.

The player on the outs? Running back Antonio Gibson, signed in March, 2024, under Belichick’s short-lived successor, Jerod Mayo. Gibson was a 2020 third round draft pick of the Washington Commanders where in 2021 he recorded 1,037 rushing yards.

Rookie UDFA Also Compared to Former Patriot Burkhead

As the second option after Rhamondre Stevenson for the Patriots in 2024, Gibson got 120 carries and converted then into 538 yards including 11 first downs and a single touchdown.

But Gibson will now need to fight for his job against Larison, who according to Fansided scribe Chris Schad, “was one of the best running backs in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), running for 1,465 yards and 17 touchdowns while catching 62 passes for 847 yards and six touchdowns.”

As a top steer wrestler in high school, the Idaho native appears to possess the grit and fearlessness that would make Vrabel happy. Chad Graff of The Athletic reported that the Patriots gave Larison a contract with $175,000 in guaranteed money, “a lot of money for a UDFA. Clearly they see some promise in him and a potential path to the 53-man,” Graff wrote.

The Athletic reporter came up with another comparable player for Larison — not McCaffrey but former Patriots running back Rex Burkhead.

“Similar size and testing numbers (though Burkhead was a touch more explosive jumping),” Graff wrote.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin