The Patriots are into the grind of roster trim-down season, and their first wave of cuts told a pretty clear story: no real shocks, just the early pruning before the tougher calls arrive.
New England started Saturday with 91 players, roster-exempt offensive tackle Lorenz Metz included, and after a run of releases plus the addition of running back Corey Kiner in a trade, the roster sat at 73. The big deadline is still ahead, with the team needing to get to 53 players by Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.
So far, the cuts have mostly cleared out the players who were already buried on the depth chart. The real decisions are still on deck.
The Patriots still have to sort out whether rookie Behren Morton did enough to justify keeping three quarterbacks. They also need to settle the depth in the trenches on both sides of the ball, decide whether a young pass rusher earned a spot behind Dre’Mont Jones and Elijah Ponder, and figure out who is the top backup cornerback in the secondary.
There’s also a second layer to all of this, because the roster math won’t stop once the initial 53 is set. New England will have to create room for any waiver claims it is awarded, then turn around and build out a 16-player practice squad.
That group figures to be filled mostly by players the Patriots just let go over the last two days, assuming they clear waivers. Wide receiver Kyle Dixon is one name to watch there after he closed the preseason finale by catching all eight of his targets for 71 yards. He could be joined by fellow receivers Nick DeGennaro and/or Cameron Dorner.
Other practice-squad possibilities include offensive lineman Jacob Rizy and Mehki Butler, linebacker Riley Wilson and safety Peter Manuma.
Saturday also brought a notable bit of draft-class attrition. When the Patriots released cornerback Marcellas Dial Jr., Drake Maye became the lone remaining member of the 2024 draft class. The only other player from that class to make it to 2026, offensive lineman Caedan Wallace, had already been traded to the Dolphins.
Zooming out even further, the Patriots now have just four players left from the 2022 through 2024 drafts combined: Maye, wide receiver DeMario Douglas, punter Bryce Baringer and cornerback Marcus Jones. That thin pipeline is part of why head coach Mike Vrabel pointed to the team’s lack of depth after the preseason game versus the Eagles.
On the cap side, the first round of cuts didn’t move the needle much. Most of the players released or waived were on minimum-salary deals, and several didn’t count toward the top-51 cap number. The biggest change was swapping out Hassan Haskins’ $1.145 million cap charge for Corey Kiner’s $1.005 million number.
Even after that, the Patriots still have more than $30 million in cap space, which leaves them with plenty of flexibility as the roster crunch continues.
In all, New England released or waived 19 players on Friday night and Saturday. That leaves 73 on the roster for now, with at least 20 more cuts still needed by Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.
In Other News...
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Patriots Cut Wave Left Two Roster Battles Wide Open
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Even after the deadline, the picture is not fully set. The team still has about 69 players on hand, and a few position groups remain in real competition for those final spots, which means some of the most interesting decisions are still ahead. For a roster that already changed shape in one major wave, the next round of sorting could matter just as much for players trying to hang on and for a staff looking to finalize its bench and special teams mix. [Read more 🡒]