Seeing who is currently available in free agency to play safety, I can't help but wonder if Steve Gregory will be re-signed at some point, obviously with a lower salary and cap number than he had.
Another possibility is that perhaps a guy like Kanorris Davis showed enough in practices last year that the club would be comfortable with him as the last safety on the roster. He and Nate Ebner seem to be redundant with only one or the other probably making the roster: special team aces that would typically on see the playing field on defense in case of emergency due to an injury.
Safeties currently on the roster
Age - Name - # games active - Defensive snaps - ST snaps
27 - Devin McCourty (17 games) - 1169, 90.2% - 186, 38.0%
23 - Duron Harmon (16 games) -- 429, 33.1% -- 105, 21.5%
24 - Tavon Wilson (15 games) -- 21, 1.6% --- 253, 51.7%
26 - Nate Ebner (17 games) ---- 5, 0.4% ---- 325, 66.5%
24 - Kanorris Davis (4 games) -- 0, 0.0% ----- 49, 10.0%
35 - Adrian Wilson (0 games) -- 0, 0.0% ----- 0.0.0%
- defensive snap count (1296) includes both playoff games in 2013
- total special team snaps were for regular season only (489)
- age is as of this calendar year/regular season, not today's date
- Steve Gregory appeared in 16 games and 973 snaps (75.1%)
- Gregory also had 87 ST snaps (17.8%)
Chris Price has some more on the position here:
It Is What It Is » Resetting Patriots depth chart in secondary
Duron Harmon: A key year for Harmon, who now might have the opportunity to step into the strong safety spot that was vacated by Gregory. Harmon, who just put the wraps on a pretty good rookie year, played well in spots when Gregory went down with a finger injury in 2013. It’s one thing to be a short-term fill-in, but it’s another to be a long-term starter in the league. Strong safety certainly is a position worth watching when the draft rolls around, and what the Patriots do (or don’t do) will tell you a lot about their comfort level with Harmon at this stage of his career.
Nate Ebner: A defensive back in name only (or in case of extreme emergency), the former teenage rugby star really made his bones last year as a key special teams contributor and should be an important part of the special teams unit in 2014.
Tavon Wilson: At first glance, it appears Wilson needs a good spring and summer to stick around Foxboro. The second-round pick out of Illinois in 2012 had a terrific start to his rookie year with four picks in the first half of the season. Then, he dropped off the radar screen. To be fair, some of that was due to the arrival of Talib. Talib allowed the Patriots to move McCourty to safety full time, which took most of Wilson’s playing time. But while he got consistent special teams snaps, he didn’t register much if at all as a regular contributor in 2013, leaving him a sizable question mark heading into 2014.
Adrian Wilson: The veteran technically is under contract for one more year to the Patriots, and according to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, he’s expected to be ready for spring workouts. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Wilson, who went on season-ending IR with an Achillies injury at the end of last summer, could be a fascinating prospect to watch when it comes to 2014. If he’s healthy, he certainly could be in the mix to get some snaps at strong safety.
Kanorris Davis: A Troy product who spent the bulk of the 2013 season on the practice squad, he projects as a special teams contributor in 2014. But it is impressive to watch him fling his body around on kick coverage with a near reckless abandon. One guy worth watching this year.
Back to the original topic, here's a list of the veteran free agents on the market; again the age listed corresponds to how old they will be at the end of the year. With Kendrick Lewis, James Ihedigbo, Charles Woodson and Darian Stewart all signing recently, an already sparse availability of choices in free agency has now become that much more meager.
- 29 – Thomas DeCoud – Falcons
- 26 – Major Wright – Bears
- 29 – Chris Clemons – Dolphins
- 31 – Steve Gregory – Patriots
- 33 – Mike Adams – Broncos
- 32 – Jim Leonhard – Bills
- 32 – Reed Doughty – Redskins
- 31 – Michael Huff – Broncos
- 32 – Kerry Rhodes – Cardinals
- 34 – Quintin Mikell – Panthers
- 34 – Chris Crocker – Bengals
- 35 – Ryan Clark – Steelers
- 36 – Yeremiah Bell – Cardinals
- 36 – Ed Reed – Jets
- 27 – Patrick Chung – Eagles
- 29 – Tanard Jackson – Redskins
- 26 – Anthony Walters – Falcons
- 26 – Kurt Coleman – Bears
- 29 – Colt Anderson – Eagles
- 31 – John Wendling – Lions
- 32 – Matt Giordano – Rams
