Schefter reporting Kelly, Anderson and Smith cut

Fencer · Aug 24, 2014

Rob0729 said:
Smith and Anderson aren't huge surprises. Neither did much this preseason. Kelly is a shock to me. I thought he would start .

It must be good news that Siliga and Chris Jones and their injuries. Wouldn't be surprised if Kelly is back.

Exactly. Kelly seemed like a solid starter for cheap, so this comes as quite the surprise.

RxJock1120 · Aug 24, 2014

JMC00 said:
The Kelly cut indicates a few things to me
Easley is set to go
Siliga won't be going on IR
Bill has liked what he's seen in Worthy so far but still no guarantee he makes it past the next round. But Worthy is 24, cheaper and they have him right now through '15. Whereas Kelly is 33 and a FA after this season.

Will Smith cut means Zach Moore & Darius Fleming made the 53-man

Anderson cut means Beauharnais is the #4 MLB behind Mayo, Collins, and Hightower

Maybe there are just too many good DBs on this team to keep guys that provide fractional upgrade at DT, just a thought.

Miguel · Aug 24, 2014

FYI - Kelly's salary was already at the minimum for a player with his experience.

Mack Herron · Aug 24, 2014

supafly said:
The comments from Kelly don't sound like he's returning to me, although I may be reading too much into it:

" 'I don’t know but I enjoy my time and my teammates. I have no problem moving along with my career,' Kelly said, via Tom Curran of CSNNE.com."

EDIT: Sorry, JDot for the repeated comment.

Understood, though I would have thought BB would have had an honest discussion with him. The alternative is even harder to believe: BB has rejected the Patfan and media consensus that Kelly was a better talent than some guys on the roster.

ausbacker · Aug 24, 2014

I'm not particularly high on Siliga, Vellano or Jones so the Tommy Kelly cut comes as something of a surprise to me. That said, I support the commentary of others who aren't particularly bothered by the release of Will Smith and James Anderson. Neither player showed much.

I'm a little concerned at the loss of veteran depth on the Defensive Line now. It was already running 1-2 guys short. That just moved to 3-4.

Horace's Ivories · Aug 24, 2014

very surprised about Kelly - but not upset at all..

pencilneckgeek · Aug 24, 2014

hwc said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Worthy (4th round draft pick, played in 14 games as a rookie) and Easley (1st round draft pick), the backups at DE?

Seems like to me that Belichick is trading a big road grader fatty for some young bucks who can get after the QB. This is shaping up to be young aggressive, attacking front line.

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.

ATippett56 · Aug 24, 2014

Will Smith was no where to be found and James Anderson was unimpressive, to say the least.

Tommy Kelly's release is a surprise.

Patriot Missile · Aug 24, 2014

Marqui said:
Maybe Kelly didn't want to take another pay cut? Either way, he was worth his small contract.

He played a whopping 5 games. Maybe the doctors were privy to some info the media and fans were not?

Bruins29 · Aug 24, 2014

pencilneckgeek said:
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.

???

Not sure if he was or was not our 2nd best given I have not seen enough of all the DTs so far and I dont think you have either. Past performance is worth **** on this team.

Also, not convinced this was about money. It was not much money however if they intend on making a few cuts to save some cash to perhaps sign a cut player later (TE for instance) then its fine.
Also, why should BB lose sleep? Maybe he feels there are better younger players and perhaps he cut TK so he could sign on to a team before all the cuts happen.

mayoclinic · Aug 24, 2014

Bruins29 said:
perhaps he cut TK so he could sign on to a team before all the cuts happen.

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.

Mack Herron · Aug 24, 2014

mayoclinic said:
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.

Few will be surprised that BB showed the vets that courtesy; the surprise is that Kelly was one of them.

Deus Irae · Aug 24, 2014

Patriot Missile said:
He played a whopping 5 games. Maybe the doctors were privy to some info the media and fans were not?

If it was medical, it would likely either have been done before this, or have been something Kelly knew about. This seems more like a solid "Adios", since he was basically only getting league minimum plus active roster bonuses

Dexter · Aug 24, 2014

Hope we won't regret the Kelly cut, thought he had one more good season in him.

mayoclinic · Aug 24, 2014

Mack Herron said:
Few will be surprised that BB showed the vets that courtesy; the surprise is that Kelly was one of them.

I understand that. Obviously, BB decided that he liked the young talent and wanted to move in another direction. We won't know for a bit whether or not that was the right call.

Brady_to_Moss · Aug 24, 2014

Kelly is really done? Thought he could play.

mayoclinic · Aug 24, 2014

From Reiss:

The potential release of Kelly wasforeshadowed in mid-July, so the move doesn't come as a major surprise. When you're 33 years old, coming off a torn ACL, and accept a reduced contract from the team in the offseason, it reflects a situation that is anything but a sure-fire lock. Part of what makes it a mild surprise is that Kelly had been running with the first-unit defense in training camp and the preseason, but this is a reminder that what we've seen to this point probably won't resemble what unfolds in the regular season. The Patriots almost certainly will run multiple fronts in the regular season, not just the vanilla 3-4 alignment we've seen to this point. After captain Vince Wilfork and stalwart end-of-the-line players Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich and Dont'a Hightower, the Patriots have plenty of versatile, younger players along the line to mix and match combinations in players such as Sealver Siliga, Chris Jones, Dominique Easley, Michael Buchanan, Zach Moore, and perhaps Joe Vellano and Jerel Worthy, among others.

Following up the New England Patriots roster moves - espnBoston

Also thoughts on Smith and Anderson.

Ring 6 · Aug 24, 2014

meatface said:
maybe they plan on grabbing one of the DT that have been cut by another team. I dont think Anderson is a surprise, he really had not played very well this preseason.

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

mayoclinic · Aug 24, 2014

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

That's my hope and interpretation as well. Easley ready to step into a full time role certainly makes Kelly expendable, especially if BB likes what he sees out of Worthy.

Brady_to_Moss · Aug 24, 2014

Must have a lot of confidence in the young guys and could mean we could see Easley in there soon.

Schefter reporting Kelly, Anderson and Smith cut

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