Patriots reportedly will release Brian Hoyer ahead of the new league year
The Patriots won't save much money with the move.
Brian Hoyer’s time in New England is coming to an end.
The Patriots are expected to release Hoyer ahead of the start of the new league year on March 15, NFL insider Adam Caplan reported Saturday.
Hoyer, 37, was entering the second year of a two-year, $4 million deal he signed with the Patriots last offseason. He held his spot as the team’s primary backup quarterback entering the 2022 season. However, he suffered a concussion when he started for Mac Jones against the Packers in Week 4 and was placed on injured reserve shortly after, which ended his season.
In Hoyer’s absence, fourth-round rookie Bailey Zappe thrived in the other two games Jones missed. Zappe completed 70.7 percent of his passes for 781 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions with a 100.9 passer rating over four games, winning both starts he made.
Zappe’s emergence likely made Hoyer expendable, even if it leaves the Patriots without much experience at quarterback on the depth chart.
Interestingly, the Patriots’ decision to release Hoyer doesn’t do much for them salary cap-wise. They’ll eat $1.64 million in dead cap money and will create just $294,118 in cap space, per OverTheCap.com. Cap space isn’t too much of an issue though for the Patriots entering the offseason, as they’re projected to have $32.5 million in space entering the offseason, which is the seventh-most cap space in the league.
Hoyer was currently in his third stint with the Patriots. New England signed Hoyer as an undrafted free agent following the 2009 NFL Draft, and he served as Tom Brady’s backup for a few seasons until he was cut in 2012.
Hoyer played with six teams over the next six seasons, making 37 starts during that span as he mostly filled in for an injured quarterback. He made his way back to New England during the 2017 season when the 49ers cut him after trading for Jimmy Garoppolo. He stuck around in New England until the beginning of the 2019 season when he was released on cutdown day as Jarrett Stidham won the backup job over him.
After spending the 2019 season with the Colts, Hoyer signed a one-year deal with the Patriots in 2020 roughly a week after Brady departed for the Buccaneers. He made his first start with the Patriots that season, filling in for Cam Newton in Week 4 against the Chiefs. He completed 15 of 24 passes in that game but threw an interception and lost a fumble along with taking a sack that ran the clock out prior to halftime in that game, leading him to get benched.
Hoyer signed another one-year deal with the Patriots in 2021, becoming Jones’s backup.
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