FOXBOROUGH - Are you ready for the Tommy Cutlets era? Mike Vrabel made it clear last Friday that the Patriots were looking for another quarterback, and they now have that guy, claiming Tommy DeVito off waivers.
The Giants released the fan favorite - I'm required by law to put that phrase into the story - and the Pats added him to a quarterback room that already has Drake Maye and Joshua Dobbs. Could DeVito unseat Dobbs, depending on how quickly he picks up the Josh McDaniels offense? I asked Vrabel if he was satisfied with the level of play from his current #2.
"Yeah, yeah," he responded confidently. "And again, Josh has settled down in the games, and I think that there's been some mistakes, whether that was joint practice or practice, and we're all going to have mistakes, and then being able to settle down in the games and perform and operate.
"Each move that we make may not be an indication of what the players are at that position. I think it's just looking into strengthening the overall roster construction."
DeVito is only due $1.03 million. The Pats are required to keep him on the 53-man roster for the first three weeks of the regular season, or he reverts to waivers.
The Patriots were also awarded Rams CB Charles Woods via waivers. Woods appeared in 12 games for L.A. last season, recording two tackles. He's 5'11", 184 pounds, and wasn't highly regarded coming out of SMU, yet the UDFA made the team coming out of training camp in 2024, mainly as a special teamer. He has experience as a gunner and a jammer, and likely helped push Javon Baker to waivers today. Neither DeVito nor Woods was at practice, having not yet arrived from their previous destinations.
Baker isn't the only receiver to get bounced off the original 53-man roster submitted to the league by 4 p.m. yesterday. Kendrick Bourne has also been cut loose. The team attempted to trade the veteran wide receiver, but failed. They also asked him to take a pay cut, and he refused. When asked about Bourne and Marcus Epps asking for and being granted their releases, Vrabel didn't want to get into the details.
"That's news to me," he said. "And I think that we just again, try to put the roster together. I guess when it doesn't work out, you break up with somebody, your girlfriend doesn't want to be with you, and then you say, 'Well, I don't want to be with you either.' Again, I'm not going to get into all that."
Meanwhile, two players currently on the roster who, per league sources, were available prior to cut-down day (and remain so) are Anfernee Jennings and Kyle Dugger. According to one report, the Patriots could have dealt Dugger if they were willing to eat more of his contract, but they declined.
"I think he's feeling better, and thought he had some really good snaps against New York, and think he can help us and obviously find a role," Vrabel said of Dugger. "Talk to him about that. Have talked to him about that. We'll continue to talk to him about that and provide value to the football team."
As for Jennings, he is in a new defense for the first time since his high school days. Both Alabama and the Pats under Bill Belichick and Jerod Mayo did the same thing. The new braintrust didn't give him early opportunities with the top group; in fact, they had Jennings on the scout team into the summer. However, to his credit, he has improved and now has a spot, but for how long?
"He wasn't able to play in the last game, but where we were as of now, I thought he - through his practice and through his performance in the games and the way that he competed - has earned the right to be here, and he'll have to continue to do that, just like everybody else will."
Both players were gracious enough to talk with us in the locker room after Vrabel's press conference. Jennings seemed to be in a good place physically after missing the last week of practice, and also mentally, despite having his name out there in trade rumors.
"I mean, you know, I hear it, but I just focus on what I can control," he told me. "That's showing up here every day, going to work. That's my focus right now."
He maintained that party line throughout the interview. Still, it was interesting to hear him say that this aggressive scheme will allow him to "let it go a little bit," obviously a far cry from the amount of reading he had to do under Belichick/Mayo. Jennings has never been much of a pass rusher, but under the tutelage of outside linebackers coach Mike Smith, he said he is learning new ways to attack the quarterback.
As for Dugger, he tried his best to ignore the chatter around him.
"I haven't looked at it," he said of the trade talks. "You know, obviously, people have made it aware to me, but I try to stay the same. Just stay neutral. I don't really have much to say about it."
The 29-year-old has been a better player than he has shown for most of the summer. His recovery from ankle surgery took longer than even he anticipated, but Dugger has, as Vrabel pointed out, shown some signs that he's kicking off that rust. How far is he away from being his best self?
"I still got a lot of ways I can improve" he said. "That's how I think about it. I ain't really trying to put no ceiling, no limit, or anything on it. I'm just trying to get better every day."
Last nugget for you comes from Vrabel on why rookie Andres Borregales won the kicking competition over Parker Romo. By the way, Borregales said he found out he emerged victorious when he looked at social media and saw Romo had been released.
"I thought it was competitive," said Vrabel. "I thought Parker really improved from the spring to the summer, and I think just the entire body of work, we felt like Andy was going to be our kicker. ... We're going to do everything we can to support Andy, and he knows he's got to make them. That's the job of the kicker. You’ve got to make them, and I expect that he will."
Practice squad looks like this (so far):
OLB Bradyn Swinson, CB Kobee Minor, DT David Olajiga, C Alec Lindstrom, G Jack Conley, WR Jeremiah Webb, WR John Jiles, TE Gee Scott, TE CJ Dippre, DT Jahvaree Ritzie, CB Miles Battle, G Mehki Butler, RB Terrell Jennings, LB Cam Riley, CB Brandon Crossley, and OLB Truman Jones.
On the decision to release Swinson, Vrabel said, "There are always tough decisions that we have to make. So we have to do what's in the best interest of the football team, and that's why you practice. There's a competition, and there are games to evaluate and see how they respond."
Hardly a ringing endorsement for the 5th round pick, who, as we mentioned in this space over the weekend, hadn't really popped.