The Patriots made a transaction on Wednesday, announcing the release of linebacker Sione Takitaki.
Takitaki was signed to a two-year deal last offseason, with the former Browns player, who was selected by Eliot Wolf in the third round back in Cleveland in 2019, getting released on Tuesday well in advance of free agency.
His departure shows that the evaluation of the current personnel is clearly underway, with new head coach Mike Vrabel and defensive coordinator Terrell Williams seemingly having a vision as to how they want to shape the linebacker room in 2025.
Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston talked about the move in most recent Next Pats Podcast, adding that the fact Takitaki was someone who Wolf certainly had an affinity for speaks volumes on his release, and indicates that this is likely a decision made by Vrabel as he continues looking at how they plan to play defense moving forward.
“It is interesting in that, to me, the first thing that I think of is that Sione Takitaki was somebody that Eliot Wolf went out of his way to bring in year one of this new Patriots regime in 2024 with Jerod Mayo,” said Perry. “Eliot Wolf, they needed a little bit of linebacker depth. They wanted somebody that had experience, somebody that Eliot Wolf clearly has respected going back to his time in college, when Eliot Wolf was a huge proponent of drafting Sione Takitaki to the Cleveland Browns, that was Eliot Wolf.”
“And so, if they are now releasing somebody that Eliot Wolf has this connection to, what does that tell us? Well, to me, it tells me what we already knew and what we had already inferred by this point in the offseason, which is Mike Vrabel’s running the show. If everything was up to Eliot Wolf when it came to personnel, then you might see Eliot Wolf give Sione Takitaki another shot here.”
Perry added that this wasn’t a move related to money, nor was there likely any financial reasoning behind it. It’s simply a football decision, and Vrabel is definitely the one who likely made the call for the team to cut ties with the veteran linebacker.
“This is not about salary cap. This is not about how much they were paying this guy,” said Perry. “They have plenty of salary cap space. This is about Mike Vrabel looking at his team, maybe wanting to do a guy solid, quite frankly, and looking at a player like Sione Takitaki and understanding that this particular player at this particular position is just not going to have a spot for us.”
“To me, that is a statement. As small a name, as small a move as this may be, this is Mike Vrabel putting his stamp on his team, and you’re going to continue to see moves like this, whether it is departures or acquisitions. ”
Takitaki had a tough first season with the Patriots, with an offseason procedure last year seeing him start the preseason on PUP, before eventually being activated in October. His activation came as the club was hurting at linebacker, having lost Ja’Whaun Bentley for the season after he was injured during the club’s Week 2 loss against Seattle.
Their depth is still somewhat limited at that position. Bentley’s status is still unknown coming off his torn pectoral, with Jahlani Tavai as the only other player to play significant snaps in their roles last season. Behind those two, not in any order, are Christian Elliss, Curtis Jacobs, and Monty Rice.
Elliss played the most out of that remaining group, having seen his snaps increase as the season progressed last season. Jacobs only played a handful of defensive snaps, with most of his time coming on special teams. Rice only played five defensive snaps in the finale and also mostly played special teams.
It will be interesting to see how that group evolves in the coming months, whether it’s through free-agent signings or through the draft. But with that first domino falling, there will likely continue to be a significant amount of turnover overall on a roster that has yielded an 8-26 record over the last two seasons.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
