Training camp in New England is now little more than a week away.
Football is about to sprint back into our lives, beginning with daily practices at Gillette Stadium, then preseason action and finally on Sept. 11 the Patriots season opener in Miami. The most popular sport in Boston, the most popular sport in the country, is about to return to the landscape.
Along the way there will be plenty to ponder and debate as Bill Belichick’s team prepares itself for a pretty formidable schedule in Mac Jones’ critical second season as New England’s franchise QB.
Training camp annually brings surprise breakout names – wide receiver Tre Nixon began bidding for that title with an impressive spring of work. There will be daily competition for roster spots and roles. Reports out of practice in Foxborough will be detailed daily, for some players a rollercoaster ride through the summer of competitive ups and downs.
And, of course, one of the more popular if difficult to define questions for the Patriots and really every NFL training camp is whether there could be a surprise cut coming down the pike prior to the final regular season roster being set?
True surprise cuts can be difficult to project. If a player is a true surprise cut, then no one is thinking about him being cut, after all. And if there is a name that immediately comes to mind as a potential surprise cut, then really how much of a surprise is it going to be?
Heading toward 2022 the Patriots don’t seem to have too many surprise cut candidates. The roster is loaded with competition and questions at many positions, which means many an individual should be approaching it like their job is on the line. Because it could be and probably is.
But the team also has a pretty sizeable group of players whose spot on the roster in New England feels pretty locked in for this fall, even if Belichick wouldn’t likely admit it at this early point in the process.
Still, with training camp nearing on the horizon and not a single practice in pads in the books, let’s take a shot at spit-balling a list of potential surprise cuts for the Patriots this summer.
(And just to clarify, putting a name on this list doesn’t mean we’re projecting him to be cut, it’s just an attempt to throw some reasonable “surprise cut” options out there for discussion. By the nature of the “surprise cut” definition, there is just as good a chance that each of these guys has at least a complementary role in 2022!)
Malcolm Butler – The veteran cornerback was out of football a year ago. Now, he’s back and penciled in as a starting cornerback where his unique career began in New England. Butler appears to be in very good shape. He looked plenty competitive in the spring. But he’s still a 32-year-old cornerback who was retired a year ago. That leaves enough uncertainty to put the former Super Bowl hero on the list. Butler would leave $750,000 in dead cap money if cut according to Spotrac.
Nelson Agholor – Financially, cutting Agholor is really tough to swallow as it would leave a $10 million dead cap hit for one of last year’s big-money free agent signings. With $9 million of that money salary, New England would probably love to try to work out some sort of a trade to ease the burden, but that may be difficult. Agholor was a big time disappointment in 2021. There is hope that he might move into more of a slot role in 2022 and that could increase his production. Still, it’s not hard to think the Patriots receiver depth chart could fill out with DeVante Parker, Jakobi Meyers, Kendrick Bourne, Tyquan Thornton and maybe Nixon, leaving Agholor as an expensive man without much of a role. The finances probably keep the veteran in the mix, though.
Henry Anderson – The veteran defensive lineman was expected to have a decent role up front a year ago until a pectoral injury forced him to miss his first season in New England. Anderson restructured his contract this spring to lower his salary, a sign that maybe both sides want to continue the relationship. He would cost $1 million in dead cap money to cut.
Still, given the injection of young, competitive bodies up front, Anderson doesn’t quite feel like a roster lock and he wasn’t exactly lighting the field on fire during training camp and preseason action last summer.
Any LB not named Matthew Judon or Ja’Whaun Bentley – The linebacker position is filled with young, unproven options or complementary veterans. The competition behind Judon and Bentley is wide open. Any of the rest of the group could just as easily start as get cut. Josh Uche is supposedly a key piece to the puzzle on defense, but he’s never proven a thing. Anfernee Jennings and Ronnie Perkins are former third-round picks who’ve yet to establish themselves in any way. Raekwon McMillan is returning from a torn ACL. Mack Wilson has curiously garnered buzz since arriving in the Chase Winovich trade. Cameron McGrone is seen as a modern linebacker with upside after sitting out his rookie year. Some name or names we’ve talked ourselves into thinking are potential playmakers will almost certainly be on the outside looking in when training camp concludes.
Cody Davis – The 33-year-old veteran has been a core special teams player over the last two seasons in New England. He has a cap hit of $2.3 million with a dead cap hit of $500,000 if cut. The Patriots have never been afraid to spend roster spots and money on special teams talent, but New England was also atrocious overall in the kicking game a year ago. Not that Davis was to blame, but if things get shaken up in the third phase he could be a casualty.
Shaun Wade – The second-year cornerback has had a strange career with just three games to his resume. Wade was a rising star at Ohio State at one point. He was drafted by the Ravens in the fifth round last year and then traded to the Patriots. Given the lack of proven talent and need for bodies at the position, Wade should be able to compete for a roster spot. But given the way his young career has gone as well as the fact that New England drafted two cornerbacks (Marcus Jones and Jack Jones) while bringing in veteran Terrance Mitchell in free agency, Wade feels like far from a lock to make the roster. Of course maybe that means he wouldn’t really be a surprise cut!