Schefter reporting Kelly, Anderson and Smith cut

[patchick]

Christopher Price ‏@cpriceNFL 12m
Wonder if we'll see Tommy Kelly on the roster after Week 1. #Patriots

Weird comment from Price. The whole idea of "veteran courtesy cuts" is that you're giving them a chance to catch on elsewhere. Kelly is gone.

Like most, I'm only surprised by Kelly. Smith and Anderson were already off my rosters, but Kelly seemed like a solid vet on short money.

Optimistic view: Worthy looks promising and earned a roster spot, and Easley is ready to go. Pessimistic view: like the surprise cut of James Sanders, this will be a case where we would have been better off sticking with the devil we knew.

 

[Ring 6]

Kelly is no fatty. He was our second best DT until earlier today. I disagree with Belichick's value call, and I hope he loses sleep over that.

No offense but I'll go with bbs assessment of who are the best players over yours.
We see with Kelly and smith that players who were excellent before severe injuries aren't always the se when they return. Especially 10+ year veterans.
Your feelings about Kelly are provably true pre injury and off the mark post injury.

Same as me with smith. I accept I was wrong because bb knows more than me about whether a guy can still play and has a actually studied how the players have looked in camp.
I defer to both more data and more ability to judge it

 

[mayoclinic]

Optimistic view: Worthy looks promising and earned a roster spot, and Easley is ready to go. Pessimistic view: like the surprise cut of James Sanders, this will be a case where we would have been better off sticking with the devil we knew.

Nailed it.

 

[Mack Herron]

We are already overloaded at DT. I think this move says Easley will play full time from the get go.

I suspect this was the plan for Easley when they drafted him. Seems odd that they have seen anything to alter their intentions for Easley.

 

[TomPatriot]

Three guys who have one thing in common - each one is half a step slower than he used to be.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

The release of Kelly leads me to believe that Siliga & Easley are healthy enough and ready to play.

 

[unoriginal]

A hat tip to the posters who vehemently argued that some of Chris Jones / Joe Vellano / Sealver Siliga were future rotational pieces and not just bottom-of-the-barrel crap. They pushed Kelly off the roster.

 

[Joey007]

Surprised about Kelly but like what it most likely means for Easley. If Easley really is ready to go, I'd rather much go with a young, explosive Easley than a not as explosive, aging Tommy Kelly.

 

[Joker]

oh well...time to get back to churning out those NEW roster projections....I'm gonna do mine NOW...

my roster projection is whatever the roster is on August 31st...THOSE are MY 53...and then on Sept 1st I'll tell all of you who my practice squad players are....

gosh, I hope I WEEEEEEEEEEE-UN!

 

[mgteich]

We were a top 10 defense last year with Jones, Ninkovich, Buchanan, Siliga, Jones and Vellano. As has been pointed out, we have added Wilfork AND Easley AND Worthy.

Most of us thought that Kelly and/or Smith of are better than the 9 above. Belichick disagrees.

Apparently someone is ready to start at DT. I presume that person is Easley.

With regard to Anderson, I think that we will be fine with Fleming and Beuaharnais as backups.

Another conclusion is the Moore is better at this point than Smith. We need a 4th DE, in addition to Ninkovich, Jones and Buchanan. We still could sign a vet DE.

Finally, we must HOPE and TRUST that at least some of the injured DT's are ready to play.
===
And yes, someone will pick up Kelly at his vet minimum slaty plus game bonuses.

 

[Kontradiction]

Hoping that the Tommy Kelly cut doesn't come back to bite the team in the ass. The others are not surprising.

 

[jefmblrd]

I'm really surprised about the Kelly cut and feeling a bit uneasy about it with the injuries to Siliga and Jones and the fact that Worthy is just coming back from injury. The upside is that they must feel Easley is ready to go. I would expect Kelly to get picked up but if he were to come back after the first game his salary wouldn't be guaranteed.

Somewhat surprised about the Anderson cut due to a big drop off in the back up linebackers. Does this mean that Darius Fleming has a shot at making the club?

Wasn't at all surprised about the Smith cut; he didn't show up in the games and the practice reports on him were not strong.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Looks like one of those cases where BB cuts the vet early so he has a bit more time to catch on with another team.

I don't think it's any coincidence that 3 vets were the first announced cuts. BB wanted to do them the courtesy of letting them know he was moving in another direction and giving them the opportunity to find a role with another team. Classy move.

I need to stop reading Patsfans because the posts here previously derided the idea that BB sometimes cuts vets early as a courtesy.

All said the Kelly cut is a head scratcher. Proven vet. Looked decent.
Kids must really impress the coaching staff.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

No offense but I'll go with bbs assessment of who are the best players over yours.
We see with Kelly and smith that players who were excellent before severe injuries aren't always the se when they return. Especially 10+ year veterans.
Your feelings about Kelly are provably true pre injury and off the mark post injury.

Same as me with smith. I accept I was wrong because bb knows more than me about whether a guy can still play and has a actually studied how the players have looked in camp.
I defer to both more data and more ability to judge it

No offense taken. [emoji174] At the beginning i camp

Despite my tongue-in-cheek pretensions to knowing better than BB, I do think that Kelly performed better than any DT other than Vince this preseason - dominating opposing linemen some of the time. However, as Bill had said before, he has to project who will be the best in December, and I can't second guess him on that. This is unquestionably the way to build a team for the long haul, 2015 and beyond. It remains to be seen whether we miss him or not this year.

 

[Jared]

All said the Kelly cut is a head scratcher. Proven vet. Looked decent.

Note that nearly every "kid" has at least a year of NFL starting experience at this point. Looking "decent" is not enough when you're 33 and on the last year of your contract.

If you cut one of the youngsters, and Kelly leaves next year, you're suddenly out another developmental player who could have continued to improve. BB has always erred on the side of cutting a guy too early rather than too late.

This isn't really a big surprise.

 

[OhExaulted1]

Can't wait to see the reaction when we cut Vollmer.

 

[jefmblrd]

Just tweeted by Ian Rapoport: interesting point about Gerard Warren.

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet
"With #Patriots cutting Tommy Kelly & Will Smith, don't be shocked if 1/both is back after W1. Salaries won't be gtd. Gerard Warren treatment"

 

[JMC00]

Starting to think that the Worthy trade wasn't cover for Siliga & Jones and was more about taking a flier/look on a younger, cheaper, DL depth piece signed thru 2015 while saving close to $1m on a 33 year old coming off an ACL injury.

I mean if BB had liked what he had seen from Kelly not sure that move is made. They would have just brought in a guy off the street and not risked potentially losing a draft pick.

The Ben Bass trade was simple, keep Justin Green from potentially going to the Jets while getting a guy that could fill in it for the time being.

 

[JMC00]

Just tweeted by Ian Rapoport: interesting point about Gerard Warren.

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet
"With #Patriots cutting Tommy Kelly & Will Smith, don't be shocked if 1/both is back after W1. Salaries won't be gtd. Gerard Warren treatment"

But Warren was cut during the final cuts and then was signed back after the 3rd game. This cut kind of signifies that BB may have moved on from Kelly and is letting him to find a team two weeks before the season starts and not a few days before it starts.

 

[jsull87]

Like everyone the only shock for me here is really Kelly. Anderson i had on my roster but only due to experience. I am not looking at the guy day in day out.

I won't lie Kelly being cut is a big shock. Due to him being a Vet presence where the alternatives are all 1st/2nd year players.

I am hoping that this means Silinga, Jones and Easley will all be ready for Game 1 if not close behind.