Patriots release defensive end Kony Ealy
"It's just one of those things that didn’t work out or wasn’t going to work out."
The New England Patriots announced Saturday they had released defensive end Kony Ealy, parting ways with a player who had been one of the team’s most notable offseason acquisitions.
Ealy, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound defensive end, had played three seasons with the Carolina Panthers, including a historic Super Bowl 50 performance in which he racked up three sacks, an interception, and a forced fumble in a losing effort against Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos.
The Patriots traded their 2017 second-round draft pick to the Panthers in exchange for Ealy and a third-round pick in March.
Bill Belichick told reporters Saturday that the 25-year-old had been making progress and “was really working hard” during Patriots training camp, but that ultimately it was a situation that wasn’t going to work out.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Belichick said. “He worked hard. We worked hard. There was a lot of effort put in, but in the end we didn’t feel like this was going to work out.”
Kony played only in the second half with the back-ups during Friday’s preseason game against the Detroit Lions. According to The Boston Globe, his $900,000 was not guaranteed and carried just a $100,000 salary cap charge for an offseason workout bonus — making the cut a relatively low-cost decision.
Belichick said he hoped the timing of the release gave Kony a deserved chance to find a better situation with a new team ahead of the upcoming season
“It gives him an opportunity about a week ahead of next week to hopefully create a better opportunity for himself,” said the Patriots coach. “I think he deserved that. He did everything we asked him to do. It just didn’t work out for either one of us like we hoped it would.”
The Patriots used the third-round pick they received in the trade for Ealy to draft fellow defensive end Derek Rivers, who recently suffered a likely season-ending torn ACL during a practice drill.
