New England Patriots
New England still has some serious concerns about depth across several areas of its roster after making nearly 40 cuts over the weekend.
Mike Vrabel, Elliott Wolf, and the rest of the Patriots’ top brass had a busy weekend — with New England cutting nearly 40 players from its training camp roster to get to a 53-man squad before regular season action.
Here is New England’s current 53-man roster:
As the Patriots now potentially comb the rest of the NFL for waiver-wire pickups or other roster additions, here are five takeaways from an eventful couple of days in Foxborough:
Patriots get clarity on murky roster battle with trade
The Patriots might like what they have in the ground game with their 1-2 punch of Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson.
But who slots in behind those two was an ongoing question throughout the summer, especially after both Terrell Jennings and Myles Montgomery were lost for the year due to injury.
Entering the weekend, it looked as though that RB3 spot was going to come down to either Hassan Haskins — a physical, between-the-tackles runner with a lower ceiling than other options — or Lan Larison, a versatile, pass-catching back who didn’t impress all that much during preseason play.
Rather than potentially settle for Haskins, New England instead struck ahead of any waiver-wire shopping by trading for former Cardinals back Corey Kiner — dealing away the 2028 seventh-round pick it received in the Kayshon Boutte trade to bring in reinforcements at RB.
Kiner may not be poised for a featured role on Josh McDaniels’ offense.
But there is at least more upside with the 2025 undrafted free agent — and his profile as a shifty running back with pass-catching capabilities gives New England an added wrinkle that could come in handy to spell both Stevenson and Henderson at times.
Even though Kiner’s stats last season in Arizona may not necessarily leap off the page (12 rushes for 48 yards over four games), he did pop during preseason action with the Cardinals this summer — recording 180 rushing yards and two touchdowns while also posting 28 receiving yards.
The writing was seemingly on the wall that Kiner was a cut candidate for the Cardinals. But with New England 31st on the waiver-wire order this summer, the Patriots essentially coughed up a seventh-rounder in order to cut the line and make sure they solidify some depth in its running back room.
Landry’s start on PUP list a bad sign for New England’s top Achilles’ heel
Vrabel attempted to signal some optimism on Thursday night when asked about the chances of both veteran edge rusher Harold Landry and special-teams ace Brenden Schooler making the 53-man roster.
Landry and Schooler missed all of training camp and preseason action while on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list and non-football injury/illness (NFI) list, respectively.
“Those guys stayed back, Brenden Schooler and Harold both stayed back, and they have to be able to pass certain things, because once you take them off, that’s kind of what it is,” Vrabel said after New England’s preseason finale against the Browns. “And so we just want to be very careful and smart with them and not force them into anything.
“But on the same note that if they can do and relatively perform where we expect them to, or where they expect themselves to, that could be a possibility that we could be able to bring those guys off.”
Ultimately, both Landry and Schooler ran out of runway — with New England keeping both Landry (PUP) and Schooler (NFI) on their respective lists to open the 2026 season. As such, both players will miss at least the first four games of the 2026 season.
Losing Schooler is a heavy blow to New England’s special-teams unit, where he has thrived as the team’s gunner over the last few years. But the uncertainty surrounding Landry’s health is a major setback for a Patriots’ edge-rushing group that was already thin entering the year.
New England has a few key cogs in the trenches that can generate pressure in Milton Williams and Christian Barmore. But the personnel behind that D-line isn’t exactly all that stacked, especially with Landry (8.5 sacks) now on the shelf due to a knee injury.
Even if Landry does return at some point this season, the 30-year-old Boston College product is going to need some time to ramp up — and it’s unclear just how steady that ailing knee is, especially after his production declined sharply in the second half of last year.
Had Landry been healthy, there would still be a lot of question marks surrounding New England’s pass-rushing crew this season — fresh off a year where only six NFL franchises recorded fewer sacks than the Patriots (35.0) during regular season play.
Dre’Mont Jones is a nice pick-up in free agency, but does New England even have a replacement for offseason departure K’Lavon Chaisson (7.5 sacks) — let alone Landry’s expected absence?
New England is going to have to bank on a second-year leap from Elijah Ponder, while 2026 second-round pick Gabe Jacas might be handed steady reps out of the gate — even if the Illinois product is still very, very raw.
If there is good news on the injury front, New England didn’t have to designate either punter Bryce Baringer or offensive lineman Ben Brown for a stint on injured reserve or the PUP list — which could signal both could be back within the next four weeks.
Swing tackle a sneaky area of concern for New England
When it comes to depth concerns on New England’s roster, most of the focus has revolved around the defense — especially when it comes to the Patriots’ backup corners, linebackers, and edge rushers.
But New England is playing a dangerous game with their backup offensive line at this point, especially after the Patriots placed second-year pro Marcus Bryant on injured reserve on Sunday.
Bryant should be viewed as one of New England’s top success stories this summer, with the 6-foot-7, 320-pound tackle going from a potential roster-bubble player into New England’s expected swing tackle after a very strong training camp.
But Bryant suffered an injury during New England’s preseason game against the Eagles, putting him on the shelf for at least the first four games of the 2026 season.
Even though New England might like what it has in starting tackles Will Campbell and Morgan Moses, having Bryant in place as a safety blanket was a lot more reassuring than New England’s current depth chart — which might have rookie Caleb Lomu as the next man up if injuries arise.
Some of those fears were reinforced when the Patriots acquired a third-year pro in tackle Walter Rouse on Sunday as a potential stop-gap option to further insulate Lomu away from regular reps.
Lomu has had an up-and-down summer for New England, with the 2026 first-round pick both holding his own at times and getting beat decisively in 1-on-1 drills and on blitzes during preseason action.
The Patriots likely aren’t sounding the alarms on Lomu quite yet, but the 21-year-old tackle would seemingly benefit from a true “redshirt” type of season in 2026 before getting a shot at stepping into a greater role in 2027.
Such a scenario was pretty viable had Bryant not been injured. But if Bryant is sidelined for an extended stretch and Lomu is thrown into a baptism by fire this fall due to other injuries, things could get pretty ugly in the trenches for New England.
Three UDFAs make the cut
The Patriots have had plenty of success over the years in bringing in undrafted free agents (UDFAs) who carve out key roles — including Malcolm Butler, David Andrews, Jonathan Jones, JC Jackson, Jakobi Meyers, Brenden Schooler, and others.
In total, New England has had a UDFA make its initial 53-man roster in 22 of the last 23 seasons.
And this year, New England had three UDFAs make the cut: tight end Tanner Arkin, cornerback Channing Canada, and linebacker Khalil Jacobs.
Arkin, an Illinois product, wasn’t much of a surprise, as New England has desperately needed a hard-nosed, blocking tight end to replace free-agent pickup Julian Hill — who suffered a season-ending injury during OTAs earlier this summer.
He’s not flashy, but Arkin should be able to land some welts and clear a space in the ground game this year when called upon.
Jacobs, a rotational player at Missouri who had only one pre-draft visit (in New England) this spring, was an early standout in camp.
While it looked as though Chad Muma or K.J. Britt were the early favorites to snag the third linebacker spot behind Robert Spillane and Christian Elliss, Jacobs stood out due to his versatility this summer — dialing up pressure on blitzes while also dropping back in coverage to break up passes.
Jacobs has been sidelined with an injury as of late, but he could be a really versatile tool in Zak Kuhr’s defense this year.
Canada — a promising defensive back out of TCU — was a bit of a surprise, with the 24-year-old corner leapfrogging veteran Kindle Vildor to grab a spot on the 53-man roster.
Granted, just about all of New England’s backup corners labored on Thursday against the Browns — which likely hurt Vildor’s stock ahead of cutdown day.
But Canada still has some upside, while his value on special teams also likely separated him from the pack.
In total, 11 of New England’s 53-man roster are rookies — including eight of the team’s nine draft picks from April.
2024 is looking like a disaster of a draft … sort of
The good news? The Patriots found their franchise quarterback with the third-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft in Drake Maye.
The bad news? The rest of New England’s eight-player draft class that year has been a complete disaster.
It wasn’t necessarily much of a surprise that cornerback Marcellas Dial didn’t make the cut this weekend, with the 25-year-old defensive back unable to leapfrog other depth options like Kindle Vildor.
But Dial’s release means that New England doesn’t have any of its own 2024 draft picks left on its roster beyond Maye.
Here’s a painful reminder of that draft class:
- Round 1 (3rd overall): Drake Maye, QB – Still in New England
- Round 2 (37th overall): Ja’Lynn Polk, WR – traded after one season, now retired
- Round 3 (68th overall): Caedan Wallace, OT – traded to Miami during ‘26 camp
- Round 4 (103rd overall): Layden Robinson, G – waived after one season
- Round 4 (110th overall): Javon Baker, WR – released after one season
- Round 6 (180th overall): Marcellas Dial Jr., CB – waived after two seasons
- Round 6 (193rd overall): Joe Milton III, QB – traded to Dallas after one season
- Round 7 (231st overall): Jaheim Bell, TE – released after one season
Considering all of the discourse over the last few weeks about New England’s lack of depth across the roster, it’s impossible to ignore how years of poor drafting under Bill Belichick and Eliot Wolf — especially in 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024 — have left a seemingly contending roster still lacking in terms of both dependable replacements and cost-effective internal options.
New England’s reliance on using free agency to shore up several holes across the depth chart hasn’t stung this team so far, but things could get ugly moving forward as the Patriots brace for record-setting deals for Christian Gonzalez and Maye.
In what might be a telling sign of the turnover in Foxborough as of late, 41 of the 53 players on New England’s current roster is made up of players acquired since Vrabel took over in January 2025.
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