FOXBORO — The Patriots have been pressured to make some tough roster selections in latest weeks with gamers able to return off of reserve lists.
The Patriots have activated huge receiver Tyquan Thornton, offensive lineman Riley Reiff, security Cody Davis and cornerback Jack Jones off of PUP and injured reserve lists since Week 5. They’ve additionally needed to navigate tough damage conditions at huge receiver and on the offensive and defensive position.
Their newest transfer was to waive quarterback/huge receiver Malik Cunningham on Tuesday, opening up a spot on their 53-man roster. Cunningham was signed to the 53-man roster to again up beginning quarterback Mac Jones and supply huge receiver depth in Week 6. The Patriots couldn’t have used Bailey Zappe as their emergency third quarterback if Cunningham had solely been quickly elevated from the observe on account of an NFL rule. The hope is to get Cunningham again on the observe squad if he clears waivers.
The Patriots now have some freedom so as to add a 53rd participant to their roster, and so they have quite a lot of in-house choices.
The prime candidate is huge receiver Jalen Reagor, who performed a season-high 25 snaps in Sunday’s win over the Bills. Reagor, who’s impressed the workforce in observe, has used up all three of his observe squad elevations seven weeks into the season. If the Patriots need to put him again on the sector Sunday towards the Dolphins, then they would wish to signal him.
“Jalen’s come in, been a really good scout team player for us,” head coach Bill Belichick stated Wednesday. “We performed towards a whole lot of prime receivers, and he’s gotten a whole lot of good alternatives with a few of the routes that these guys run to sort of be featured slightly bit on a few of the scout workforce performs. He’s earned some enjoying time, which has come from his observe time, observe efficiency.
“He’s picking up the offense, and we’ll see how it goes. But he’s got good talent, good guy to work with, glad we have him.”
If the Patriots signed Reagor to the 53-man roster, that transfer seemingly wouldn’t be made official till Saturday at 4 p.m.
There are different observe squad choices to signal to the 53-man roster. Defensive sort out Jeremiah Pharms is out of shape squad elevations after serving as depth with Daniel Ekuale on injured reserve. The Patriots elevated one other defensive sort out, Trysten Hill, final week towards the Bills.
Offensive sort out Conor McDermott additionally not too long ago re-signed to the observe squad. The Patriots settled their offensive line final week by transferring Mike Onwenu from proper guard to proper sort out and beginning rookie Sidy Sow at proper guard. But left sort out Trent Brown suffered an damage in that sport, and McDermott might be seen as higher sort out depth than Calvin Anderson and Vederian Lowe, each of whom have been benched this season. Lowe additionally suffered an ankle damage in Sunday’s win.
The Patriots additionally may use extra depth at edge defender with Keion White (concussion) and Josh Uche (ankle/knee) banged up. Williams Bradley-King, a 2021 seventh-round decide by the Commanders out of Baylor, is on the observe squad. McDermott, Hill and Bradley-King might be observe squad elevations reasonably than 53-man roster signings, nonetheless.
The workforce additionally may signal a participant from one other workforce’s observe squad or make a commerce earlier than Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline.
Source: www.bostonherald.com