The Patriots’ preseason is officially behind us, and that means all attention now turns toward forming the final 53-man roster.
Going from a 90-player cap straight down to 53 all at once means that we can expect a flurry of roster moves shortly before the 4 p.m. deadline on Tuesday, August 29.
Getting all 90 players for an entire preseason has made for some intense battles in training camp, but Pats fans can expect to see these 10 roster bubble players get cut before the deadline.
10 Patriots Who Will Be Cut Following Preseason
1. J.J. Taylor
Bill Belichick likes J.J. Taylor and he’s been around for a few years now, but there’s just not space on this roster too keep him on the 53.
Obviously Rhamondre Stevenson and Ezekiel Elliott aren’t going anywhere. Pierre Strong and Kevin Harris are both making real pushes for the roster too, and it’s worth keeping in mind that Taylor was already on the roster when Bill decided it was worth drafting two running backs last year.
I favor Taylor over Ty Montgomery or any of the rest of the group to be the closest to making a push, but there’s just not room to carry five RBs on the roster and that means Taylor’s best shot of staying in New England is on the practice squad.
2. Isaiah Bolden
It feels icky to write anything negative about Isaiah Bolden right now while he’s dealing with a scary concussion, but it’s the unfortunate nature of the NFL.
His clearest path to make the 53-man roster right now is to be kept so that he can be placed in I.R. with a designation to return. But that means he’d still be taking up space at the roster deadline, and he just hasn’t shown enough to be worth making a maneuver like that.
The seventh-round pick had a very mediocre showing against the Houston Texans, and then was downright bad against the Packers before suffering his injury.
He may have the potential to develop into something more, but that’s not something you bank on with a 53-man roster spot for a seventh-round pick. And it’s especially not something you do when they’re already going to be missing time with injury.
Things would be different if Bolden were, say, a fourth-round pick or at least a fourth-round talent who had fallen in the draft. Things might be different if he were still a seventh-round pick but had shown out in the preseason.
But unfortunately, Bolden just hasn’t given the Patriots any reason to bring him onto the 53-man roster. It’s a tough business, but once Bolden is healthy don’t be surprised if we see the Patriots bring him back onto the practice squad.
3. Andrew Stueber
Andrew Stueber essentially redshirted his rookie year after a post-draft injury kept him off the field until December. That meant this year’s training camp was a crucial one for the 2022 seventh-round pick, and to his credit he stepped up nicely.
Reports around Stueber were glowing early in camp. He was “like 50 times further along than where he was last year,” according to Bill Belichick.
But the hype has since quieted down, and Stueber was pretty inconsistent in the preseason.
It’s nice to see the strides he’s made, and I’d like to keep him on the practice squad to see if he keeps developing at a high rate, but he’s another victim of the numbers game here. It takes some tough cuts to get down to 53, and the Pats are deep enough at tackle.
Trent Brown and Riley Reiff are the starters. Sidy Sow is definitely making it. Connor McDermott is my pick to make it if we carry nine offensive lineman (and is the final cut if we decide to only carry eight). And then Stueber is next in the pecking order.
Close, but no cigar for Stueber.
4. Trace McSorley
Trace McSorley is only barely even a “roster bubble” guy, but let’s also use this spot to look at who doesn’t get cut here: Malik Cunningham.
Obviously Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe are the QB1 and QB2. There’s not much question or debate there. The real question at the position is whether the Patriots carry two or three QBs, and whether or not Malik Cunningham counts as one of them.
If Cunningham hadn’t shown out in the preseason, I’d have the Patriots only carrying two quarterbacks with McSorley getting the axe anyway.
But Cunningham’s versatility is so Belichick-friendly that it’s really hard to see them letting him go.
McSorley, on the other hand, has almost no clear path to providing anything for this team. If Mac Jones gets hurt, it’s Bailey Zappe running the offense with Malik Cunningham backing him up. If Zappe then gets hurt, it’s Cunningham time. And when you’re desperate enough that your question is “who will back up our QB3?” then it almost doesn’t matter who you’re getting.
McSorley isn’t worth hanging onto for that fringe possibility, especially when he may well still be available to sign if it ever does come down to that.
5. Calvin Munson
Bill Belichick values special teams contributions more than maybe anyone else in the NFL, but there are still only so many roster spots that can be earned based purely on special teams ability.
There are a ton of specialists unlikely to contribute on defense who are vying for those jobs, and Calvin Munson just doesn’t offer enough to lock one of them up for another season.
He saw some run on specials when active over the last two seasons, but we have more talent available this year including a new breakout in Ameer Speed.
Munson would probably need to make the roster over Chris Board or Brenden Schooler, and I don’t see him replacing either one.
Munson was already on the roster when Bill brought in Board, who has played a special teams snap rate of at least 80% for each of his last two teams. And Schooler played a huge role in 2022.
We’d need to see some upside as a depth linebacker to make Munson worth keeping, and the 28-year-old has not shown that to us in his six-year NFL career.
6. Bill Murray
Returning to the o-line, I’m standing by my assertion that the Pats are probably carrying eight offensive linemen. And that if we carry nine then it’s probably Connor McDermott as the ninth.
Those eight would be the five starters plus our three mid-round linemen Sidy Sow, Jake Andrews and Atonio Mafi. The Pats spent two fourth and one fifth-round pick on the line for a reason. Belichick wants to get young and is clearly unhappy with the current depth there.
Well unfortunately for Bill Murray, he’s part of that “current depth.”
He’s a fun story. An undrafted free agent defensive tackle who made the conversion over to the offensive side of the ball. He even made it onto the active roster in 2022.
But this draft sent a loud and clear message about how the coaching staff views this offensive line. Murray may one day develop into a real contributor up front (though I wouldn’t count on it), but for now if he is going to stick in New England then it’s going to be on the practice squad.
7. Anthony Firkser
If we had this same roster a couple years ago I would probably project Firkser to make it because he can provide tight end depth and also play fullback.
But the Patriots moved away from using a fullback last season, and Rhamondre Stevenson averaged 5.0 yards per carry. We clearly don’t need one.
So that means Firkser is trying to stick on this roster purely as a tight end. His best chance was when Mike Gesicki was banged up, but Gesicki is now healthy and ready to play a big role alongside Hunter Henry.
It’s a battle between Firkser and Matt Sokol to make it as the TE3, but I’m not even fully convinced the Patriots will carry three. Belichick has no qualms going with an extra offensive lineman (or even a defensive player) in a 3-tight end set, and that’s the kind of versatility you need on the 53-man roster when you want to carry as many special teams guys as Bill does.
It would take a really talented TE3 (or one that plays a big role on specials) to crack this roster, and Firkser is neither of those things.
Look for the Pats to enter the season with just two tight ends while also carrying a couple on the practice squad in case any more injury issues pop up.
8. Nick Folk
Nick Folk has spent the last three and a half seasons kicking for the Patriots, providing some much-needed stability at the position once it became clear in 2019 that Stephen Gostkowski didn’t have anything left in the tank.
Folk was never going to be the super long-term answer that Patriots fans had become accustomed to having at the position though. He wasn’t our next Gostkowski and he wasn’t our next Adam Vinatieri. He was just a short-term solution who happened to stick around longer than many expected.
But it’s time to move on, because we’ve hopefully found our next decade-long kicker.
Or at least, we better have to justify spending an early fourth-round pick on Chad Ryland. The writing was on the wall for Folk when we made the pick, but Belichick is not afraid to admit mistakes quickly, and Ryland still needed to earn his roster spot.
Ryland didn’t get many chances in preseason game action to prove himself, but he did show out for long stretches at training camp. He had some off days, but so does everybody. Overall he outperformed Folk, and even if the two had put up identical stats then Ryland’s youth and potential would have made him the easy choice.
We’ll be saying goodbye to Folk.
9. Corliss Waitman
Not content to only have a training camp battle at kicker, the Patriots carried two punters this preseason.
Bryce Baringer didn’t come with as much draft capital spent as Ryland (a sixth-round pick), but drafting a punter at all is a pretty good sign that you expect them to have a real chance at being a difference maker.
We had already signed Corliss Waitman before the draft, and it was clear that Bill was going to have these two duke it out to replace Jake Bailey (and Michael Palardy).
Much of this battle will have taken place in practice rather than the preseason games, but it’s certainly worth noting that Baringer had the better showing in live game action, and that reports out of camp are that Baringer was punting better there, too (barring a few-day slump Baringer went through but has since bounced back from).
Baringer got the start in the final preseason game and showed out (including booting a 69-yarder), and that sealed the deal.
Waitman has already played for two different teams in his first two NFL seasons, and New England will not be the next team he gets to punt for.
10. Sam Roberts
If there’s one thing Bill Belichick can’t stand, it’s avoidable mental mistakes. And that means Sam Roberts’ two penalties against the Green Bay Packers could really come back to haunt him.
Roberts played in five games for the Pats as a sixth-round rookie last year, but still only saw 40 defensive and 10 special teams snaps on the year. He wasn’t very good when he was on the field either, and Pro Football Focus gave him a brutal overall grade of 46.5.
Penalties aside, things weren’t any better this preseason, kicking off the preseason with grades of 44.0 against Houston, 45.9 against Green Bay.
Poor performance and discipline problems? No chance Belichick sticks with Roberts.
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