After 22 training camp practices and three scintillating preseason games (can you detect the sarcasm there?), we are now about to flip the calendar to September and to football games that truly matter.
It’s been a solid summer of work for the Patriots. The off-field distraction has quieted, and the work on the field, while not perfect, has been productive. This should be a good football team. How good remains to be seen, but if they’re not competing for a playoff berth (at the very least), then something (or multiple things) went wrong.
I was chastised by a friend for including DT DaQuan Jones and LB Shaq Thompson on the previous 53. “Pick from the players that are here,” he kvetched. Fine. FINE. But let the record show I think they should sign both in the next week, and were they to do that, Eric Gregory and Namdi Obiazor would be the odd men out. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, bubby.
Anyway, enough about my personal life and annoying friends. Here’s my last crack at the 53 before Sunday’s cutdown day.
QB (3): Drake Maye, Tommy DeVito, Behren Morton
No changes here. I still think Morton wouldn’t get claimed, but like him enough not to even risk it. His performance in the first half in Cleveland was shaky, and that’s being kind. He threw an interception that got waved off by a bogus DPI, blew a checkdown with poor mechanics, and should have been intercepted in the end zone, which would have taken points off the board. The second half was also ugly.
Meanwhile, Maye had an excellent camp and is a better player today than the one who had an incredible 2025-26 regular season.
RB (3): Rhamondre Stevenson, TreVeyon Henderson, Reggie Gilliam
No changes here. I don’t think any of the Hassan Haskins, Lan Larison, Jam Miller, or JaMychal Hasty quarter gets claimed, and it's very possible they claim a running back.
After taking Foxborough by storm last summer, Henderson was awfully quiet this time around.
WR (6): A.J. Brown, Romeo Doubs, Pop Douglas, Mack Hollins, Kyle Williams, Efton Chism
No changes. I don’t believe all six will always be active on game day, with Chism likely the odd man out. For those who lament the Kayshon Boutte trade, I believe he would have had a hard time getting 10 snaps in games (assuming everyone is healthy). I also think he could have been inactive due to his lack of special-teams participation. That wouldn’t have gone over well. Anyway, this is a good group, although we can settle down with the embarrassment of riches thing that’s been making the rounds.
TE (3): Hunter Henry, Eli Raridon, Tanner Arkin
I put Arkin back on and cut Jack Westover, the thinking being that Arkin’s sheer physicality and size are something they don’t have on the roster at TE.
T (5): Will Campbell, Morgan Moses, Caleb Lomu, Marcus Bryant, Demetrious Crownover
Vrabel praised Crownover after the Eagles game. As for Bryant, there’s been no update on the severity of that injury he suffered Saturday against Philly, but that could upset the apple cart if it’s significant.
For the record, Campbell had a strong camp.
G (4): Mike Onwenu, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Jared Wilson, Greg Van Roten
I’m starting Brown on IR. Van Roten immediately stepped in and got reps at all three interior line positions with the first group.
Edge (4): Dre’Mont Jones, Elijah Ponder, Gabe Jacas, Player-to-be-named
Aw hell, I said I wasn’t going to do this, but I don’t care what anyone thinks; I’m putting someone who’s not on the roster right now on the roster. Maybe it's a veteran like Hassan Reddick. Maybe it’s someone they claim on waivers. But this spot is dicier than an onion that I’m pulverizing for a marinara sauce.
No Bradyn Swinson here. I toyed with putting Jesse Luketa on. Ultimately, neither did enough for me to warrant a spot. The practice squad would be the hope, and then use elevations until you have an answer on Landry.
DT (6): Milton Williams, Christian Barmore, Cory Durden, Joshua Farmer, Leonard Taylor, Eric Gregory
I won’t write about how well I think Jones would fit here…
Vrabel praised Taylor after the Eagles game for his work. Waiting for the light to go on for Farmer. He had moments early last season before falling out of favor due to injuries and whatever else was going on there.
LB (5): Robert Spillane, Christian Elliss, K.J. Britt, Khalil Jacobs, Namdi Obiazor
Big changes here, with both UDFA Jacobs and draft pick Obiazor making the roster. Too many clues from front office/coaches for me to ignore.
CB (6): Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis, Marcus Jones, Charles Woods, Kindle Vildor, Karon Prunty
No changes, though all eyes remain on Gonzalez and his contract situation, and whether he would withhold his services for week one and beyond.
Vildor has had a better summer than Woods and should be the first outside corner to come off the bench. Woods would remain Jones’ sub. Neither had good nights in Cleveland.
S (4): Kevin Byard, Craig Woodson, Dell Pettus, Jaylen Reed
A lot of folks are saying this wasn’t a position of need after the Boutte trade - or “Jaylen Reed trade,” as Eliot Wolf termed it. I disagree. Mike Brown has been substandard this summer, and while John Saunders has been a ball magnet, it’s never been with or against the top group. They’ll hope he passes through waivers and ends up on the practice squad.
ST (4): Andy Borregales, Matt Haack, Julian Ashby, Brenden Schooler
I’m keeping Schooler on, even though he remains on the NFI. I’ve seen him running on the lower grass field and will continue to believe he’s ready for week one until I’m told otherwise. As for Haack/Baringer, the ideal world would have Baringer recovered from whatever injury popped against the Eagles, and he’s ready for week one. But that seems unlikely.
IR: Ben Brown, Bryce Baringer
PUP: Harold Landry
“HAPPY PLACE” REDISCOVERED
In this space a week ago, I wrote about Za’Darius Smith coming out of retirement to join the Falcons. Now we know why a productive player stepped away from the game.
In a press conference earlier this week, an emotional Smith revealed that he left the Eagles in October because of a call he got from his mother’s doctor, who told him she didn’t have much time left. So Smith did the only thing he felt he could do: leave the game he loved to be with the person who raised him.
Eventually, his mother passed away, and shortly thereafter, so too did his grandmother and his father.
"I was in a dark place," Smith said, fighting back tears.
During that time, the 33-year-old also saw his “friends” fall away because he was no longer an NFL player. But his personal trainer encouraged Smith to resume working out, to get the body moving and to find a better headspace. As he did, Smith realized he wanted to resume playing.
"This is my happy place," Smith said, "come back and play football."
He nearly signed with one of his former teams, Cleveland, but they couldn’t make the numbers work. Shortly thereafter, Kevin Stefanski called him and said he’d love Smith to come to Atlanta. That his mother always dreamed he’d play for the Falcons (they’re from Alabama) made it an easy decision.
"My mom - rest her soul, man - she always wanted me to be in Atlanta with the Falcons," Smith said.
But there’s also the connection with defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who lost his wife this offseason after a battle with cancer.
"I don't know if he knew about mine or not, but he told me, and I said, 'Coach, come here, man - just give me a hug because I know exactly what you're going through, man,'" Smith said. "So that's how we immediately connected."
Smith will play a big role for Atlanta, which lost one of its starting edges, Jalon Walker, for the season with a torn ACL, and the other, James Pearce, is suspended for the first 8 games of the season for an offseason arrest.
File under: You never know what someone is going through.
HALLELUJAH
The irrelevant Pro Bowl is no more. The league announcing it has been driven out into the middle of nowhere and left for dead. That it comes about 20 years too late is neither here nor there. Ding dong, that thing is dead.
After fiddling with the format, the league turned to a flag football game over the last four seasons, and quite frankly, no one cared - players included - and no one watched.
"You come off the championship games, and the viewers see the physicality of the game, and you try to replicate that," NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said. "Frankly, it just doesn't sit well. This isn't a good representation."
Thus, the league chose to become the first of the four major sports to walk away from its all-star game. However, players will still be awarded Pro Bowl honors, as they have in the past. Only now, there won’t be alternates and situations where the likes of QB Tyler Huntley, he of the four starts that year, or one of the lowest-ranked QBs in recent memory by any metric, Shedeur Sanders, have Pro Bowls on their resumes. Ditto for Mac Jones being the 6th alternate and making it his rookie year, or Drake Maye doing the same in year one.
“The alternate thing didn’t sit well with the guys, especially those that we would consider perennial Pro Bowlers,” Vincent said. “And in their mind, ‘I want to be considered the world’s best.’ And when you start getting into the fourth and fifth and sixth alternates, it waters down the entire team.”
BROKEN BROWNS
Less than a week after Deshaun Watson verbally deflected on Browns fans, head coach Todd Monken named the troubled quarterback his Week 1 starter. What in the Sam Hill is going on?
"Took in the full body of work over the course of the offseason to training camp, to the games, the joint practice, and ultimately felt like to start the season on the road, Deshaun gave us the best chance to move the ball and score points," Monken said. "I mean, that's really what it's about. And felt that way going into the last game but wasn't sure. And after we talked as a staff and after we relooked at everything, we're going to go that direction."
Watson, who apologized for his previous comments, says he would like to repay the organization after failing to live up to what was once the biggest contract ever given to a player (5 years, $230 million fully guaranteed).
"It was a big investment, and we haven't got the product out of that investment just so far," Watson said. "And I have another shot. I have another chance. So I want to make sure I take full responsibility of this opportunity."
I’ll say. Watson’s QBR in his 19 starts - that’s right, he only has 19 starts in four years since the trade/contract - is 33.1, which is the lowest among quarterbacks over that stretch, by a long shot. However, Monken insists this won’t be a week-to-week proposition, which a) I don’t believe and b) says a lot about the player Watson beat out for the role, Shedeur Sanders. The polarizing second-year pro had plenty of opportunities to beat out the trainwreck that is Watson but couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity.
“We met this morning for a long time. All he had was a smile on his face because he really understands what is in front of him,” Monken said of Sanders. “Like any player, he’s going to work his butt off to get better.”
Sanders statistically outperformed Watson in the preseason, but struggled to process and make the type of quick decisions Monken wants from his quarterback. That was one of the same critiques of his play last year under Stefanski.
The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia dug up this gem of a stat: Over the last two years, among 78 qualifying quarterbacks, Sanders' 2025 performance ranked 77th in EPA per pass play. The only performance that was worse statistically? Watson's 2024, which ranked 78th.
In other words, this was a competition between two subpar quarterbacks, one who hasn’t been what he once was in a number of seasons, while the other may never be. Oh, and by the way, the QB the Browns picked two rounds before Sanders a season ago, third-rounder Dillon Gabriel, might not make the team. That is so Cleveland…
BROKEN SYSTEM
Earlier this week, after passing through waivers, Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright became the first NFL player to return to play in college, joining LSU and his former coach at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin.
Wright was one of many athletes from the 2022 high school class trying to capitalize on the NCAA’s new five-year model, which eliminates redshirts and waivers but excludes those who have exhausted their eligibility.
Several conferences - including the SEC - immediately adopted rules to prevent what LSU is doing: taking back an athlete who declared for the NFL draft, didn’t withdraw, and even participated in the preseason.
“Man, isn’t this shit crazy?” asked Browns coach Todd Monken. “I don’t even know what to say.”
"It's wild," Rams coach Sean McVay added. "I feel like I took a freakin' gummy.”
Undoubtedly, this will end up in the courts, but it adds another layer to the wild, wild west that college sports have become in the NIL era.
NEWS NUGGETS
- Seattle keeps shelling out big money, giving a three-year extension to Leonard Williams. Total value is $90 million, with $56 million guaranteed. They have paid a left tackle well, then given Devon Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba top-of-the-market deals at their positions. Now Williams enters the top 5 at his position.
- The Rams have reacquired diminutive WR Tutu Atwell from Miami, shipping RB Jarquez Hunter to the Fins.
- Former Patriots TE Jonnu Smith inked a one-year deal with the Packers this week. Makes sense, considering Green Bay’s desire to keep star TE Tucker Kraft on a pitch count early in the season.
- Big money wideout Alec Pierce has finally come off PUP, and the Colts are hopeful he will be ready to go for Week 1. Pierce had ankle/heel surgery this offseason. The fifth-year pro signed a four-year, $114 million deal this offseason.