MORSE: Way Too Early Patriots 53-Man Roster Projection
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The Rookie Camp has ended, and the team is in the middle of Organized Team Activities (OTAs), with the remaining OTA running through June 7th. Mandatory team Mini Camp is June 11th- 13th. After the Mini Camp is the dead period before Training Camp starts. I am estimating the Training Camp will start on Wednesday, July 23rd.
The turnover on this team is remarkable. Going into Rookie Mini Camp there are 39 new names on the 90-man roster. That is close to a 50% turnover. On my projection I have 25 new players with 29 holdovers. This accounts for Stephon Diggs starting the season on PUP rather than the 53-man roster.
Injuries, retirements, trades and signing additional players after the June 1st roster trimming by teams for salary cap purposes will obviously affect this projection.
Offense (24)
QB( 2) Drake Maye, Josh Dobbs
I don’t think they will keep three QBs. Woolridge is a project.
PS Ben Woolridge was Top 10 in passing proficiency (89%) by PFF of the eligible QBs in this draft.
RB (4) Rhamondre Stevenson, TreVeyon Henderson (r), Antonio Gibson, Lan Larison (r) (u) – Stevenson is on the hot seat because of his fumbling issue. Henderson doesn’t fumble. Larison is being compared to Rex Burkhead with tremendous pass catching ability (62 last season). He also played Wildcat QB at UC Davis and will serve as the emergency QB.
PS Trayveon Williams
TE (2) Hunter Henry, CJ Dippre (r)(u)
I am cutting Austin Hooper because he is 32 and we can’t keep two 32 yo TEs.
PS Gee Scott, Jaheim Bell
FB (1) Brock Lampe (r)(u) – In order to keep a FB you can’t keep a 3rd TE. McDaniels has always had a FB.
WR (6) Kyle William (r), Mack Hollins, Pop Douglas, Ja’lynn Polk, Kayshon Boutte, Efton Chism II (r) (u)
If Diggs is ready to go he would take Boutte’s spot. Polk and Boutte are in a dogfight to retain their spots on the team. A trade of Bourne, Baker or Boutte is a possibility. I suspect that Chism wouldn’t make it through waivers to the PS. He had 6 “30 visits” and the Patriots outbid teams to sign him to a 3-year contract worth $2.965M, of which $234,000 is guaranteed and a $25,000 Signing Bonus. The $234K guarantee won’t guarantee him a spot but that is a significant amount.
PS John Jiles
PUP Stephon Diggs
OL (9) Will Campbell (r), Garett Bradbury, Michael Onwenu, Morgan Moses, Cole Strange, Jared Wilson (r), Vederian Lowe, Caeden Wallace, Wes Schweitzer
PS Tyrese Robinson, Marcus Bryant, Jack Conley, Demontrey Jacobs
Cut Lester Cotton, Sidy Sow, Layden Robinson. Robinson doesn’t fit the type of offense that McDaniels wants to play. Cole Strange has been running with the 1st team and has been receiving praise from Mike Vrabel. Also Strange had a 9.96 Relative Athletic Score from the combine, the 7th highest all-time amongst 1700 Guards tested. Watch the Left Guard battle in training camp and the joint practices.
Defense (25)
EDGE (4), Keion White, Anfernee Jennings, Bradyn Swinson (r) K’Lavon Chaisson
Ponder could surprise and push Chaisson or Jennings
PS Elijah Ponder
IDL (5) Milt Williams, Christian Barmore, Joshua Farmer (r), Jeremiah Pharms, Khyiris Tonga
Tonga is kept because of short yardage situations
PS Wilfried Penne *, Jaquelin Roy
LB (6) Robert Spillane, Christian Ellis, Jack Gibbens, Harold Landry, Marte Mapu, Kyle Dugger
I move Mapu and Dugger to LB. The Patriots may keep Monty Rice, a former Vrabel player in Tennessee.
Cut Jahlani Tavai (He recently suffered a reported calf injury, which could affect his availability heading into training camp).
PS Cam Riley
CB (6) Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis, Alex Austin, Isaiah Bolden, Marcus Jones, Marcellus Dial
Austin has been working at Slot Corner and will be critical in the secondary because Carlton Davis averages 4 missed games a year.
PS Kobee Minor, Brandon Crossley
SS (2) Jabrill Peppers, Dell Pettus
Vrabel will likes Peppers intimidation factor. Dugger and Mapu can also play SS.
PS John Minkins
FS (2) Marcus Epps, Craig Woodson (r)
Woodson could be the starter and Epps is coming off ACL surgery and should be monitored throughout Training Camp.
Cut Jaylin Hawkins
Special Teams (4)
Brenden Schooler – Gunner
Julian Ashby – LS
Bryce Barringer – P
Andre Borregales – K
PS John Parker-Romo
PS WR Jeremiah Webb and OL Mekhi Butler are fighting for that last PS spot.
The Patriots announced that longtime Patriots offensive lineman Len St. Jean has passed away. St. Jean from Newbury Michigan played college ball at Northern Michigan and was drafted by both the Green Bay Packers (17th round #237) and the upstart Boston Patriots (9th round #68) in 1964. In the 10 years he played between 1964 and 1973, St. Jean played in 140 games and had 112 starts. Originally a defensive lineman, he switched to Offense in the 1966 season and never looked back.
An AFL All-Star in his first season, he became a mainstay at right guard over the next eight years. Fans voted for him to be a member of the Patriots All-60’s Team in 1971. In the off-season St. Jean worked as a lumberjack in his family-owned logging camp. He got the nickname the “Boston Strong Boy” by being able to carry 600-pound logs.
I remember St. Jean from the Coca-Cola bottle cap promotion the Patriots conducted. If you collected all the bottle caps, you won a football. I had a lot of Len St Jean bottlecaps. St. Jean was very active in the Patriots alumni group and would often be seen at Patriots Hall of Fame inductions. That is where I last saw St. Jean at Tedy Bruschi’s Patriots Hall of Fame induction.
Josh Hinch an Area Scout for the Southeast Region has departed from the Patriots Scouting Department. I do not know if Hinch was let go, or if he left on his own accord. Hinch had been with the Patriots since 2021. The life of a scout is difficult, especially if they have a family. It’s many days on the road interviewing people and gathering information on thousands of players. I found it refreshing that Eliot Wolf went out of his way to thank the scouts first, before he said anything about the draft. In the video the Patriots released, Wolf addressed the scouts before the Draft started and thanked them.
Patrick Stewart, Pro Scouting Director left the team to take a Football Operations position at Nebraska.
This article was started three weeks ago and what I wrote was “The Titans released three scouts, Corey Cooper, Mical Johnson and AJ Highsmith. Highsmith is the son of Patriots Senior Personnel Executive Alonzo Highsmith. This is the time of year that changes are made to the team’s scouting staffs. Look for additional movement there.
Wolf criticized his team’s free agency research in 2024, claiming that “some of the information that we got on some of the players wasn’t as thorough as it needed to be.” The hope will be that adding Highsmith helps address that particular issue”.
The Patriots announced they have in fact brought in Highsmith to replace Stewart as Pro Scouting Director. On the surface it looks like nepotism because of the relationship with his father. That is the only connection as he was not a scout in Tennessee when Vrabel was there. AJ Highsmith has been in NFL scouting for 11 years already with increasing responsibilities working for Buffalo under Brandon Beane, in San Francisco under John Lynch and in Tennessee under Ran Carthon.
The player that Eliot Wolf alluded to was picked ahead of the Patriots was Jonah Saivanea an OG from Arizona. This is according to Mike Reiss. Doubling down on Offensive linemen was an interesting Draft Strategy and one that I presented in my 3rd Mock Draft. Days before the draft Nick Cattles also projected this in his one and only Mock Draft. My question is would you be as happy about this draft if they had selected another offensive lineman at #38? I wanted TE Mason Taylor at #38. He went just 4 picks later to the NY Jets at #42. I was not unhappy with the selection of TreVeyon Henderson, but due to the outstanding depth in the RB Draft Class I would have waited until a later round to take a RB and selected Taylor at #38.
He was my draft binkie. I was right about him too! He was selected in the 3rd Round #70. TeSlaa was selected right after Kyle Williams by the Detroit Lions. That was much higher than even I predicted.
Patriots UnDrafted Free Agent FB Brock Lampe played as a 3rd TE at NIU and was often put in motion from that position. He was also a Team Captain and 3x All-Academic Team in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Another tidbit is that he excels on Special Teams and can play linebacker. He had 316 career tackles at linebacker in High School, where he was All-Conference three years in a row and All-State (Wisconsin) his Senior year. He played against BC and Massachusetts last year.
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Some interesting cuts here. In recent years the Pats haven’t had the luxury of having to cut decent players. The only quibble I have is potentially keeping Polk over Boutte. If I recall, Boutte was ranked much higher than Polk coming out of high school. Then he played well in the SEC until a coaching change. Had a rough first year with the Pats but has been pretty decent since. Polk hasn’t really shown us much. At Washington he benefited from being behind a strong WR1. Granted, he (and everybody else) were put in a terrible situation last year. But…I’m… Read more »
Better check your facts. Neither Austin Hooper or Hunter Henry are 32. Both are just 30 yrs old. Austin is a two-time Pro Bowler, is healthier and still plays better than TEs 5-7 years younger. He was one of the Patriots most productive players last season and has great chemistry with both Hunter Henry and Drake Maye. Considering the Patriots just resigned him in March with a significant raise, it’s not likely he will get cut from the roster.