Patriots reportedly cut 4 players, including receiver Devin Ross
The Patriots must make one more roster move by 4 p.m. ET to cut their team down to 80 players. Final cuts take place next Tuesday.
With the deadline to cut rosters down to 80 players approaching Tuesday afternoon, the Patriots reportedly released four players ahead of Tuesday’s practice session in the morning.
New England cut wide receiver Devin Ross, safety Malik Gant, long snapper Brian Khoury, and offensive lineman R.J. Prince, according to The Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan.
Those moves get the roster down to 81 players, meaning one more move is still in the offing ahead of the 4 p.m. ET deadline. Both offensive lineman Marcus Martin and defensive lineman Nick Thurman were missing from Tuesday’s practice just like the four other players released, meaning at least one of them could also be a roster casualty.
None of the following cuts come as a surprise.
The 26-year-old Ross joined the Patriots as a tryout player during OTAs. But he repeatedly struggled with drops and poor routes in practice and was never able to distinguish himself in the newly revamped receiver room.
With Joe Cardona back at practice and presumably healthy, Khoury didn’t have much chance to make the team either. Patriots have also tried out Deatrich Wise Jr. and Jonnu Smith as emergency long snappers, indicating an unwillingness to keep two snappers on the roster at once.
Gant had just arrived two weeks ago for his second stint with the Patriots. The 2019 undrafted free agent first joined the team in 2019 but spent the entire season on injured reserve before being waived prior to 2020’s training camp. Though he had some solid moments in the team’s first preseason game, there was little chance he was beating out players like Myles Bryant, Jalen Mills, and JoeJuan Williams for a reserve defensive back role.
Prince had signed with the Patriots after June’s minicamp but was stuck well behind top interior offensive line reserves like Ted Karras and James Ferentz on the depth chart. The same goes for both Martin on the offensive side and Thurman on the defensive line, meaning neither cut would be a surprise.
The Patriots and the rest of the NFL’s teams must make final cuts to trim their rosters down to 53 players by Aug. 31 (next Tuesday).
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