The Patriots had 51 players not suit up for the preseason finale against the Giants. And while there were 10 players who played that figure to be on the final roster — Jarrett Stidham, Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon, Demaryius Thomas, Hjalate Froholdt, Joejuan Williams, Byron Cowart and the three specialists — did the inactive list lay down a road map for how the team will be cut down by the deadline at 4 p.m. Saturday?
Let's take a look before we get into our final projections.
Here is the inactive list by position with the 10 additional virtual locks added in, but minus five players (Cam Meredith, Ben Watson, Lance Kendricks, Yodny Cajuste, David Andrews) who figure to be on a reserve list — and we breakdown the numbers (italics played in finale):
Let's start to pare this down.
You can start by eliminating these players, who are the easiest cuts: OT Cole Croston, OLB Trent Harris and S A.J. Howard.
That gets us to 53. Is that it? Is it that simple? Let's add in the players who would be cut, to see if anything is amiss:
Cuts that would stand out:
WR Jakobi Meyers
WR Braxton Berrios
WR Gunner Olszewski
DE Deatrich Wise
CB Duke Dawson
CB Keion Crossen
OT Dan Skipper
Do I have any huge problem if this is the ultimate list? No, but I'd have a beef about Meyers and probably Crossen because of his special teams prowess. Dawson, just one year removed from being a second-round pick would be a surprise to me.
Other thoughts on that list:
- There's no backup center to Karras, unless Thuney figures into the mix.
- The team is low on punt returners outside of Edelman and Chung, and I'm guessing kickoffs would fall to Bolden.
- I'm not worried about three tackles because Eluemunor can play guard and tackle. He would probably be the Week 1 swing tackle.
- They are light on nose tackles for the 3-4. It's Shelton and ... that's about it. Cowart isn't really a nose. I would expect them to add another big man.
- ILB seems heavy since Van Noy, Simon and Winovich can all play there in a pinch.
- Safety is heavy and corner is light. Safety is a top special teams position, along with linebacker.
