Pats Pulpit
The Patriots signed three rookie players to their roster, while letting another one go.
With their rookie minicamp in the rear-view mirror, the New England Patriots decided to make a handful of moves. They signed defensive tackles Isaiah Iton and Wilfried Pene as well as guard Mehki Butler to their active roster after tryouts while also letting go of undrafted free agent offensive tackle Cole Birdow.
The transactions are not necessarily of the highest profile, but they are still worth looking at.
The fact that they had to go through rookie minicamp tryouts in order to join the Patriots’ roster clearly shows that Iton, Pene and Butler are little more than fill-out-the-roster depth options at the moment. Expectations therefore have to be realistic: the chances of them turning into contributors are not particularly high.
Let’s look at last year’s post-minicamp signings as a reference. The Patriots added four players — RB Terrell Jennings, G Ryan Johnson, ED Jotham Russell, LB Jay Person — but only two of them even made it to training camp: Johnson and Person were released within a month of joining, while Jennings and Russell eventually both ended up on the practice squad.
Russell’s contract was not renewed after the season, while Jennings ended up seeing action in three games. Playing 38 offensive snaps and carrying the ball 13 times for 33 yards as an emergency depth option seems like a best-case outcome for Iton, Pene and Butler as well. Then again, the odds are not necessarily in their favor either.
Signing the trio of tryout players and letting go of Cole Birdow moves some depth pieces around. As a consequence, the Patriots’ roster now looks as follows at the positions involved:
Offensive tackle (6): Will Campbell (66 | LT), Morgan Moses (76 | RT), Vederian Lowe (59), Demontrey Jacobs (75), Caedan Wallace (70), Marcus Bryant (52)
The Patriots are in for an interesting camp competition at offensive tackle. While Will Campbell and Morgan Moses are locked into the starting spots, the rest of the group — now without Cole Birdow — will be competing for what appears to be no more than two backup spots.
Interior offensive line (11): Garrett Bradbury (55), Michael Onwenu (71 | RG), Cole Strange (69), Layden Robinson (63), Jared Wilson (58), Ben Brown (77), Wes Schweitzer (72), Sidy Sow (62), Tyrese Robinson (65), Jack Conley (74), Mehki Butler (63)
An exclusive left guard all three of his seasons at Arkansas State, Butler played a total of 2,554 snaps at the position and last season gave up only a single sack and no additional quarterback hits. Measuring 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds during the pre-draft process, he offers adequate size and athleticism, and as such will compete for practice reps at a position without a set starter at the moment.
Interior defensive line (11*): Christian Barmore (90), Milton Williams (97), Keion White (99), Joshua Farmer (92), Khyiris Tonga (95), Jeremiah Pharms Jr. (98),...
