Patriots insider agrees with Mike Vrabel’s controversial ‘depth’ take on cutdown day
Patriots insiders seem to agree with head coach Mike Vrabel’s controversial comments about the team’s depth before the regular season.
The New England Patriots had an eventful roster cutdown day. New England made a few surprising moves, including a trade for a depth piece at running back. One Patriots insider is suspicious of the team’s lack of depth now that the 53-man roster is finally complete.
Patriots insider Andrew Callahan took a similar stance to head coach Mike Vrabel, criticising the team’s depth following final roster cuts.
“The Pats are who they thought they were, well before Vrabel shared his honest thoughts to the world: a talented team with a young core and black holes for depth at a handful of positions that could threaten to suck all hope of a Super Bowl return,” Callahan wrote on Sunday.
Vrabel previously stated “I do not think we have a very deep team” on August 22nd after beating the Eagles. The reply came in response to a question about why starters like Drake Maye did not suit up against Philadelphia. Instead of giving starters more reps in the preseason, Vrabel wanted to give depth player more opportunities to develop.
The Patriots were not an incredibly deep team in 2025 either. But they got incredibly lucky with their injury luck. Callahan is right to point out the same vulnerability in the 2026 Patriots.
Even Evan Lazar of patriots.com seemed to agree with the sentiment around New England’s depth when breaking down the final roster.
“As for the depth conversation, my concern has grown mainly on defense, where the Patriots feel thin at defensive tackle, linebacker, and corner,” Lazar wrote. “They’ve got good frontline players at defensive tackle (Barmore, Durden, Williams), linebacker (Spillane, Elliss), corner (Gonzalez, Davis, Jones), and safety (Byard, Woodson). But will their backups be good enough once inevitable injuries start to hit this defense?”
Hopefully New England’s young players can rise to the occasion in 2026. Otherwise, Patriots fans could be in for a Super Bowl hangover.
The Patriots begin the regular season with a Super Bowl rematch against the Seahawks. That contest kicks off at 8:20PM ET on September 9th from Lumen Field in Seattle.
The New England Patriots had an eventful roster cutdown day. New England made a few surprising moves, including a trade for a depth piece at running back. One Patriots insider is suspicious of the team’s lack of depth now that the 53-man roster is finally complete.