Some Patriots news and notes on this Tuesday:
1) Kyle Dugger’s future continues to be in doubt, and Monday’s practice essentially reflected that.
The veteran safety reportedly spent time working with the scout team defense, lining up with the likes of Brandon Crossley and Tre Avery.
Crossley actually leads Dugger and the team in tackles for the preseason, with Dugger currently sitting two behind him and just one tackle ahead of Avery.
2025 Preseason Defensive Stats:
- K.Minor: (8 solo) 1st on the team in tackles
- B.Crossley: (7 total, 4 solo, 3 ast – [1 Forced Fumble) 2nd on the team in tackles
- A.Jennings: (6 total, 4 solo, 2 ast [3 sacks] -3rd on the team in tackles
- K.Dugger: (5 total, 5 solo [1 Interception]) – 4th on the team in tackles
- T.Avery: (4 total, 4 solo) – 9th on the team in tackles
That comes off of Saturday’s game where Dugger was out there late into the fourth quarter. The veteran did make the interception to end the game, but he also nearly fumbled the ball away and allowed the Vikings to force overtime.
It’s been a difficult summer for Dugger, and he’s in a tough spot. With just one more preseason game remaining, it feels like we’re counting down to the team potentially moving on from him.
The biggest issue when it comes to Dugger is the financial implications of moving on from him. According to Spotrac, he carries the second-highest cap hit on the team behind Mike Onwenu, with a dead cap number of $23.25 million.
Patriots salary cap expert Miguel Benzan notes that if Dugger is cut, the dead cap total is $14.5 million, with the better situation being the club finding a suitor for Dugger in a trade as the dead cap total then drops to $4.75 million.
While Dugger was out there with Anfernee Jennings in the second half, former Patriots tight end Christian Fauria made a good point during a recent appearance with Mike Reiss and Steve Burton when it came to the expectations when veterans find themselves in that situation.
“I remember being in a meeting room for a preseason game and Bill Belichick talking to all of us saying, ‘If you are a vet, if you’ve been here a long time and you’re playing in the third of, we expect you to dominate,'” said Fauria. “‘You should dominate. You’re playing against guys that do not know how to be pros.'”
Jennings did that, racking up multiple sacks and putting together a good performance. Dugger, meanwhile, managed a few tackles but didn’t seem to have the same impact. That’s not a good sign, and it feels like the reps he’s getting, especially at that point in the game, are possibly designed to give him the opportunity to showcase himself if the club is indeed shopping him.
2) The next question is obviously how someone who looked so promising just a couple of years ago could have fallen this far, and Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald shed some light on it during an appearance on NBC Sports Boston’s Arbella Early Edition.
Callahan said he spoke to Dugger after last season, trying to get a sense of what his issues were that saw him finish so badly in 2024.
“The thing about injuries is the guys are only going to tell you after the fact, which is why I talked to Kyle about this after the season,” said Callahan. “We spoke on the phone. I said, ‘Hey, what the heck is going on? You’ve not looked the same since September.’ He said, ‘I was misdiagnosed with a high ankle sprain that I continued to play on. They finally told me what it was, and then after the season, realized I needed surgery.’ My only thought now, because they’re not going to tell us, is that maybe this did sap him of whatever juice he had left Tom [Curran], because when you watch him in space, this is a guy who is always best when stepping forward as a blitzer, as a tackler, as whatever. But when he has to backtrack or chase in coverage, that’s where you see the loss of speed, which was already not great, really gone.”
“And that’s a problem because they’re going to ask their safeties to play more man-to-man coverage. He’s a liability in man-to-man coverage. And if the instincts aren’t there to keep him in line with the receivers that he’s covering, the tight ends of the quarterbacks he’s chasing, there’s not much left.”
Eliot Wolf did say on Monday that he didn’t rule out a role for Dugger, but based on his comments, it still felt like there might be some doubt about his future.
“Yeah, I think there’s still a role. It’s about trying to find the right combination and earn a role,” said Wolf. “The safety position is a lot based on communication. And so getting Craig [Woodson], who’s a rookie out there with different combinations of people, is something that we’re looking at as well.”
3) Mike Vrabel recently appeared with Dianna Russini and talked about a variety of different topics, one of which had to do with the fact that Vrabel was apparently a candidate to coach in New England prior to his stint in Houston.
Vrabel said that, at the time, he turned down the opportunity because it didn’t feel like the right option for him.
“Man, I said this,” said Vrabel when asked if Bill Belichick had ever approached him about being a coach under him. “I think that I had an opportunity to go and be an assistant in New England. I didn’t think that that was the right thing to be there at that time.”
“We had a conversation, and then I ended up going to Houston. And I felt like that was the best thing for me at that time, was to go there and learn from Bill O’Brien, which I did. I learned a lot. He helped prepare me for the opportunity in Tennessee. And then, like I said, always when the time was right, if it all worked out, we could come back here. And now we are. We’re getting started on this thing.”
That opportunity in Houston certainly worked out as Vrabel started as a linebackers coach before working his way up to defensive coordinator, which set the stage for him to land the head coaching job with the Titans.
Vrabel said that looking back, he enjoyed his time in Tennessee but that everything has a ‘shelf life’ and he’s glad things worked out the way they have.
“Had a lot of great times, had some times that weren’t as positive,” said Vrabel. “Everything has its shelf life. So I think Nashville will always be a part of us. My kids were there, and [his son] Carter went to high school there, and still going to live there. But we’ve moved on, obviously. That’s in the past.”
4) The Patriots made a couple of roster moves on Monday, putting defensive end Isaiah Iton on injured reserve, while adding wide receiver Phil Lutz.
Lutz is a former standout from Delaware and is getting his second opportunity with the team, having worked out for them earlier this year.
“Unfortunately, Isaiah Iiten had the hip injury,” said Eliot Wolf on Monday. “He’s going to go on injured reserve, and we’re signing Phil Lutz. Phil played wide receiver at Delaware and at Tufts before that. He was here for both our local day and our rookie mini camp. He’s a guy that showed well on both. We’ve been keeping in touch with him should the opportunity arise and had a little light workout, make sure he’s in shape this morning, and he’ll be out here today.”
Despite the numbers the Patriots have at receiver, Kyle Williams, Efton Chism, Javon Baker, and Kendrick Bourne are all banged up, leaving the Patriots thin at the position heading into their final preseason game.
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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.
I know just about everybody in New England is in love with Mike Vrabel but I’m not sold at all. Good draft but I’ll believe the results when i see them. He walked into a job with great draft capital, same as we had last year and a boatload of cap space.