The Patriots trimmed their roster down to 53 on Saturday. Here are the guys they cut, straight from patriots.com:
Linebacker Eric Alexander, defensive lineman Rodney Bailey, running back Kory Chapman, wideout Bam Childress, fullback Kyle Eckel, tight end Joel Jacobs, guard Victor Leyva, guard Gene Mruczkowski, tackle Jeff Roehl, wideout P.K. Sam, linebacker Grant Steen, defensive lineman Tom Sverchek, wideout David Terrell, linebacker Andre Torrey, safety Raymond Ventrone, tight end Jed Weaver and guard Billy Yates.
In my opinion, the only surprise here is Rodney Bailey. They gave up a draft pick when they signed him from Pittsburgh before last season and this off-season gave him a two year deal. I watched all of the preseason games and to me he was the best of the 'backups' on the D-line. But I don't get to watch game film and I'm not at the practices. I thought if ANY of the D-line would go it would have been Marquis Hill. He looked terrible with the exception of 2 plays. Congrats though to long shot rookie Mike Wright from Cincinnati. He did look pretty good at nose tackle, but no one gave him a legit chance to make it. (He's the #69 pictured above.)
Now, the rules of practice squad eligibility are a bit cloudy to me so I'll let you read them for yourself:
"...players are eligible for the practice squad when they do not have an accrued season of free agency credit or were on the 45-player active list for less than nine regular season games during their only accrued season(s). A player cannot participate on the practice squad for more than two seasons."
The Pats signed 7 guys to their practice squad, 6 from camp and one from the Redskins. Evidently, ANY team can sign ANY other team's practice squad players at ANY time in the season. The catch is that if another team claims a player he must be on the active game roster for the next 3 games. So the practice squad guys are essentially free agents. The six players retained by the Pats are Eric Alexander LB, Corey Chapman RB, Bam Childress WR, Ryan Krug G, Billy Yates G and Ray Ventrone S. It's interesting that PK Sam was left off in favor of Childress. The seventh player added is a LB released by the Redskins, Jared Newberry, a graduate of Stanford. He is 6'1" 234. He was 2nd on his team in tackles last season with 67. He is an acedemic all american and graduated a 3.39 GPA in Sociology. His best advice to youngsters? " Anything worthwhile is worth working hard for!" Looks to be a Belichick guy if I've ever seen one.
Teams are allowed to have 8 players on their practice squad so look for the Pats to add, most likely from another team.
I'm trying to keep tabs on Tedy Bruschi's status. It is curious to me that he is not on injured reserve, rather he is on the physically unable to perform list. That makes him eligible for a return this season in week 6. If it was a given that he was not playing THIS season, why not put him on IR? In a recent interview with Bob Kraft, Kraft slipped when asked about the health of Bruschi, saying that we'll see in the second half of the season. Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe Chris Collins was on to something this summer.
I've been reminded that I promised a 'sleepers' list from around the NFL after my fantasy draft. The draft is over and I'm working on the list, but these things take time and the NFL network, (which I highly rcommend).
No comments:
Post a Comment