I made an attempt to project the 2018 roster based on boring, conservative, and optimistic offseason assumptions. The team gets back all injured players at full health to choose from. We say goodbye to the veteran stopgaps like Harris, Britt, Bennett, and Harrison. We resign Solder but let some good FA players like Dion Lewis go (Just guessing). Of course Malcolm Butler is gone, Alan Branch too. I put Gillislee in the "gone" category, but who knows? We make no major trades involving draft picks or current players. Gronk doesn't retire.
I assigned 6 roster slots to "Draft Pick", but as we know rookie FA's might make the team as well, and some draft picks will not. I numbered the draft picks according to my perception of need. I assume the Pats will draft a QB to groom and keep Hoyer. Please note that there are some players I'd rather keep that I listed as gone rather than some players I've listed as on the roster, like Lewis and Amendola, but I'm just trying to think like Bill with regards to age and salary.
Given all that, here's what next season's opening day 53-Man roster might look like. 11 returning injured players in blue, 6 Draft Picks (or UDFA) in red.
QB, Tom Brady, Brian Hoyer, Draft Pick 2
HB, Rex Burkhead, James White, Brandon Bolden
FB, James Develin
WR, Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett
WR, Julian Edelman, Malcolm Mitchell, Matthew Slater
LT, Nate Solder, Antonio Garcia
LG, Joe Thuney, Draft Pick 6
C, David Andrews, Ted Karras
RG, Shaq Mason
RT, Marcus Cannon, LaAdrian Waddle or Cameron Fleming
TE, Rob Gronkowski, Dwayne Allen, Jacob Hollister
LDE, Deatrich Wise, Derek Rivers
DT, Lawrence Guy, Draft Pick 1
DT, Malcom Brown, Vincent Valentine
RDE, Trey Flowers, Adam Butler
LB, Donta Hightower, Marquis Flowers
LB, Kyle Van Noy, Draft Pick 4
LB, Elandon Roberts, Harvey Langi
LCB, Cyrus Jones, Jonathan Jones, Draft Pick 3
SS, Pat Chung, Jordan Richards, Draft Pick 5
FS, Devin McCourty, Duron Harmon, Nate Ebner or Brandon King
RCB, Stephon Gilmore, Eric Rowe
P, Ryan Allen
K, Stephen Gostkowski
LS, Joe Cardona
Given that, these are the notable players we let go. Some might make it to the Practice Squad.
HB Dion Lewis, Mike Gillislee
WR Kenny Britt, Bernard Reedy
WR Danny Amendola
LT Andrew Jelks
LG Cole Croston
RT LaAdrian Waddle or Cameron Fleming
TE Martellus Bennett
LDE Geneo Grissom, Eric Lee
DT Alan Branch
DT Ricky Jean-Francois
RDE James Harrison
LB Shea McClellin
LB David Harris
LB Nicholas Grigsby
LCB Malcolm Butler
SS Nate Ebner or Brandon King
RCB Johnson Bademosi
(P.S. I have no idea whedther this would be Miguel approved or not. I don't think I make any cap shattering assumptions.)
Of course I don't expect the offseason to go like this, but it's an interesting exercise to set a baseline of how things would look if we went into autopilot.