Roster Shuffle: Tiquan Underwood Cut

[PatsFans.com Article]

Roster Shuffle: Tiquan Underwood Cut
By: Derek Havens

Late Saturday night the New England Patriots cut wide receiver Tiquan Underwood. Underwood, who played in five games and caught three passes for New England, is replaced with practice squad linebacker Alex Silvestro. ...

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[BradyMossWelker]

That's just mean.

 

[vyrago]

That's just mean.

I doubt he was going to play. They probably needed another linebacker for depth. In any case, if the Patriots win, Underwood will get a ring. Also, he was in all the team pix.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

That's just mean.

Really? It's probably more accurate to say "That's just football".

Obviously, we needed a player to bolster our DL depth, or potentially sub in a guy to take Gronk's place on ST plays to help win the biggest game of the year. That guy is available, but is currently on our practice squad. You can only have him by making room on the active 53 roster.

So you take a guy you planned on not having activated for the game, but don't want snatched up by another team. High chance TiQ will pass waivers easily. No team has wanted him all year despite several other times he's been released. I suppose you'd rather we expose Ryan Mallet (who will also be inactive) and cut him instead (he's be snatched by another team by sundown)?

We're trying to win a football game here, stop being sentimental. We are not keeping 183 pound TiQ to have him fill in on the wedge on kicking plays for Gronk because we don't want to hurt his feelings?

I'll take 270 lb Alex Silvestro please.....

 

[Fixit]

Two thoughts here:

1) Tiquan probably knew about it in advance. As others have said, he was going to be inactive, so this doesn't affect him at all.
2) A poster over on JI says that BB "didn't learn his lesson from the Milloy fiasco." You know, the fiasco of a 17-2 season and a ring.

 

[Bella*chick]

2) A poster over on JI says that BB "didn't learn his lesson from the Milloy fiasco." You know, the fiasco of a 17-2 season and a ring.

Okay, that's just funny.

 

[DarrylS]

Reiss in intimating that this has to do with using Silvestro on Kickoff Returns, in a position that is normally taken by Gronkowski...

Underwood will be given another chance come August..

 

[Off The Grid]

Two thoughts here:

1) Tiquan probably knew about it in advance. As others have said, he was going to be inactive, so this doesn't affect him at all.
2) A poster over on JI says that BB "didn't learn his lesson from the Milloy fiasco." You know, the fiasco of a 17-2 season and a ring.

The Milloy situation WAS a fiasco. Lawyer deserved far better than that, and one BIG reason that I love Coach Bill?? He admitted it.

 

[Fixit]

The Milloy situation WAS a fiasco. Lawyer deserved far better than that, and one BIG reason that I love Coach Bill?? He admitted it.

Wasn't Milloy more than a little at fault in the first place?

At any rate, that wasn't my point. My point is that BB did what was in the team's best interests, and it worked out pretty well. BB would cut himself if he thought it would give them the best chance to win tonight.

Edited to add: Damn, I love that gif.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Reiss just came out with his projected inactives.......

4. Toughest call for me when projecting the 46-man game-day roster is rookie running back Stevan Ridley. If I had to guess the seven inactive players, these would be my choices: QB Ryan Mallett, RB Shane Vereen, RB Stevan Ridley, OL Donald Thomas, OL Marcus Cannon, LB Gary Guyton and DL Ron Brace. The final decisions will be announced about 90 minutes before kickoff.

This is as solid a guess as anyone can make at this point and just a quick glance should make this move even more understandable for those that are still having trouble grasping the obvious.

Not one guy on that list would clear waivers, several wouldn't last 5 minutes without multiple claims coming in for them.

Mallett, Vereen, Ridley, Cannon are all future starters here. Donald Thomas has potential down the road too.

.... and say what you will about Brace and Guyton.... BB obviously still hasn't given up on them and jettisoning them to fix a short term issue is pretty short sighted.

That leaves poor ole Underwood, whose already been released from another team.... claimed by the Pats..... and then released by the Pats several other times too, only to not be claimed by other teams.

It's a no brainer.

Timing sucks, but you really did have to wait this long to make sure 1) what Gronk's final gameday status would be, and 2) prevent the Giants from signing him to pump information.

 

[TomPatriot]

Meanwhile, Ocho gets his chance. When he's on the field, he's still a serious coverage problem, even with the age and all the nonsense.