HEADLINES

New England Patriots News & Rumors

Patriots Kept K Andy Borregales From Falling To Ravens

June 29th, 2025 at 6:29pm CST by Ely Allen

Make no mistake, the Patriots were in dire need of a kicker, and to address this, they took Miami kicker Andy Borregales with the 182nd pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. New England was strategic about where they selected Borregales, though, according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss.

Drafting kickers is a notoriously risky proposition. To illustrate, from 2010-16, only 11 kickers were selected through the NFL draft. Of those 11 drafted kickers, only three — Greg Zuerlein, Randy Bullock, and Dustin Hopkins — are still in the NFL today. In the meantime, several undrafted kickers have made impressive careers for themselves. Justin Tucker is the prime example, as he ended his time in Baltimore with him holding the highest field goal conversion percentage in NFL history. Players like Brandon Aubrey, Chris Boswell, Cameron Dicker, and Younghoe Koo have all followed in Tucker’s footsteps as undrafted standouts in recent years.

For this reason, teams tend to wait as long as possible before drafting a kicker. Not doing so has historically bit the teams who spent significant draft capital on the position. Former second-round kicker Roberto Aguayo only lasted one season in Tampa Bay and never kicked in the league after getting waived by the team that drafted him. More recently, Jake Moody was drafted by the 49ers in the third round. After struggling through an injury-riddled sophomore campaign last year, San Francisco brought in a veteran to compete with him this summer.

The Patriots knew they were going to add a kicker at some point in the offseason, but in the sixth round of the draft, one certain factor led them to pull the trigger on Borregales. Per Reiss, the Patriots brass knew that Baltimore was going to be looking to draft a kicker at some point to address Tucker’s troubling legal situation. Four picks in front of the Ravens, they tabbed Borregales. Baltimore ended up with Arizona’s Tyler Loop instead, who has reportedly been struggling so far in offseason activities.

Regardless, Borregales stands to be a key player in New England’s rookie class. Borregales never converted less that 80 percent of his kicks in four years with the Hurricanes, and he ended his time in Coral Gables with his strongest season. In a high-scoring offense led by No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward, Borregales did his part converting all 62 extra point attempts and 18 of 19 field goals attempts, including a 56-yarder.

For a team that, for so long, relied on the legs of consistent stars like Adam Vinatieri and Stephen Gostkowski, Borregales represents a hope that the team will return to that norm of consistency. In the years following their decision to move on from Gostkowski, Reiss points out that the Patriots rank 22nd in field goal success rate and 27th in extra point success rate. The Patriots made a move they hope will get them back on the right track, and they did it by taking the first kicker in the draft, just out of reach of the kicker-hungry Ravens.

Patriots Deploying Marte Mapu At LB

June 27th, 2025 at 6:01pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

Patriots defender Marte Mapu spent most of the team’s spring practices as a linebacker, according to The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin, signaling a potential role change headed into training camp.

At 6-foot-3 230 pounds, Mapu has the size and athleticism to drop into coverage or blitz from the second level. He was listed as a safety in college but primarily played out of the slot with a secondary role in the box. During his first two NFL seasons, he played 313 snaps in the box, 221 as a free safety, and 100 in the slot, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

Mapu will have to compete with Jack Gibbens and Jahlani Tavai for the backup linebacker jobs behind Robert Spillane and Christian Elliss, who took first-team reps in the spring, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss.

Gibbens signed with the Patriots this offseason after starting his career under Mike Vrabel in Tennessee. That should give him a strong chance at making the roster, but only $300k of his $1.3MM deal is guaranteed, per OverTheCap.

Tavai, meanwhile, is recovering from a calf injury suffered in OTAs. That may threaten his roster odds, according to Volin, but he still has $2.1MM of guaranteed salary across the next two seasons that could discourage the Patriots from releasing him.

The Patriots could also choose to carry all five linebackers knowing that Mapu can also provide depth in the secondary if needed.

Minor NFL Transactions: 6/26/25

June 26th, 2025 at 8:15pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

Here are today’s minor moves from around the league:

Cleveland Browns

New England Patriots

  • Released: DT Wilfried Pene

Szmyt signed with the Bears as an undrafted rookie in 2023, but did not make the 53-man roster. In 2024, he played for the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks, converting 19 of his 21 field goal attempts with a long of 61 yards. Szmyt then joined the Browns’ practice squad at the end of the 2024 season and signed a reserve/futures contracts for 2025. He was waived in early June to make room for wide receiver Jaelen Gill and now finds himself back on the roster after the team’s release of Ogbo Okoronkwo.

Cole Strange Leading Patriots’ LG Battle

June 26th, 2025 at 5:30pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Patriots’ 2025 offensive line is largely set with Will Campbell at left tackle, Garrett Bradbury at center, Michael Onwenu at right guard, and Morgan Moses at right tackle.

The only spot without a clear starter is left guard, where Cole Strange “appears to be the front-runner” coming out of spring practices, according to Ben Volin of The Boston Globe. The 2022 first-rounder started every game at left guard as a rookie and 10 of the team’s first 15 games in 2023 before tearing the patellar tendon in his left knee. The injury sidelined him until December 2024, when he was able to start at center for the Patriots’ last two games of the season.

With Bradbury arriving this offseason on a two-year, $9.5MM contract, Strange is returning to his original position where he faces plenty of competition. Sidy Sow, Layden Robinson, and Tyrese Robinson all took first-team reps this spring, per Volin, suggesting that the battle for the starting job will continue well into training camp.

Sow, a 2023 fourth-round pick, started 13 games at right guard as a rookie and profiles as the biggest threat to Strange. Sow was set to start at left guard in 2024 before a preseason ankle injury sidelined him for the first three games. He played every snap at left guard in Week 4, but did not start another game for the rest of the season.

Layden Robinson was drafted in the fourth round last year and closed out his rookie season with five starts at left guard. He bears no relation to Tyrese Robinson, a 2022 undrafted free agent who made his NFL debut in 2024 with Week 18 action for the Patriots at right guard.

Patriots third-round rookie Jared Wilson was described as a “wild card” by Volin, but he rarely lined up at guard in college and missed spring practices with an injury. That will severely lessen the former Bulldog’s chances of winning a starting job as a rookie; overall, Wilson seems more likely to take over from Bradbury at center in 2026 or 2027.

Release Candidate: Kendrick Bourne

June 25th, 2025 at 7:40pm CST by Ely Allen

It wasn’t too long ago that Kendrick Bourne was one of the top-performing receivers on the Patriots in his first season in New England for a rookie Pro Bowl quarterback in Mac Jones helping the team reach the playoffs for the first time since Tom Brady left. Things have gotten a bit darker in New England since those days, and there’s a chance things could get even darker for Bourne.

Bourne arrived in New England coming off of an average first four years in San Francisco, though for an undrafted player, those four years were pretty impressive. He averaged about 44 catches for 442 yards and 3 touchdowns over that time. After losing veteran Julian Edelman to retirement and Damiere Byrd to free agency, the Patriots were looking to free agent signings like Bourne and Nelson Agholor to work with Jakobi Meyers and a struggling N’Keal Harry.

Coming off then-career highs in catches (49) and receiving yards (667), Bourne had a true breakout season in New England, setting new career highs in catches (55) and receiving yards (800) while matching his career high in touchdowns (5). Despite Aghlolor’s average annual salary ($13MM) more than doubling his ($5MM), Bourne proved to be a clear WR2 behind Meyers that year.

Unfortunately, as the production of Jones and the team’s other passers fell, Bourne’s did, too. It didn’t help that a veteran addition in DeVante Parker arrived and surpassed him and Agholor on the depth chart, demoting him to WR3. What’s worse, a promising contract year in 2023, one that saw him emerging as WR1 over Parker, a rookie Demario Douglas, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others, came to a premature end when Bourne tore his ACL in Week 8.

The Patriots made a respectable move in the following offseason, re-signing Bourne to a new three-year deal with a slight raise despite the fact that he was going to be coming back from the season-ending injury. On his new deal, he missed the first four games of the season and took a couple of weeks to get going, but when he finally got back to the field, it had become clear that he had fallen behind youngsters Douglas and Kayshon Boutte on the depth chart.

In fact, the writing on the wall that Bourne might not have a place in New England anymore was so clear that a number of teams had discussions before the trade deadline of acquiring Bourne. The Patriots, though, held onto the veteran for the remainder of the season. Then, in the offseason, the team signed a huge free agent in veteran wideout Stefon Diggs and another veteran in Mack Hollins. Additionally, the Patriots drafted Kyle Williams in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

At this point, Bourne is sitting at WR5, maybe WR6. Diggs, Douglas, and Boutte are likely comfortably ahead of him on the depth chart, while Williams could easily be, as well, if he lives up to his draft stock. That leaves Bourne competing with Hollins for the honors of being the fifth or sixth receiver on the depth chart.

While that’s not disqualifying by itself, the fact that Bourne carries cap hits of $7.7MM and $7.9MM over the next two years makes it a lot harder to keep him on the roster if he’s not going to be contributing as a starter. Luckily for New England, Bourne’s second contract with the team included a potential out after the 2024 season. With this escape hatch, the Patriots can release Bourne with only $2.8MM of dead cap split evenly over the next two years, while giving the team $12.8MM of cap savings over that time.

It’s a little late to try and trade him at this point in time, and there’s always a chance that Bourne proves himself by moving up the depth chart. In reality, though, the amount of new competition for snaps coupled with the significant cap impact he holds over the rest of his contract puts Bourne in an unenviable position. He many need to have the camp of his life in order to keep from being a cap casualty in the next few months.

NFL Minor Transactions: 6/24/25

June 24th, 2025 at 8:41pm CST by Ben Levine

One minor move to pass along…

New England Patriots

The Patriots added some offensive line depth today in Yasir Durant. The Missouri product has bounced around the NFL since going undrafted in 2020, including a previous stint with New England in 2021. In total, the 27-year-old has appeared in 19 regular season games, with 11 of those coming with the Chiefs in 2020. Durant hasn’t appeared in an NFL game since the 2022 campaign.

AFC Staff Updates: Chargers, Texans, Jaguars, Colts, Ravens, Patriots

June 20th, 2025 at 10:07pm CST by Ely Allen

The Chargers announced two promotions and two new hires earlier this month in their front office. In the scouting department, Mike Jasinski was promoted to national scout, Jaylen Bannerman-Oden was promoted to area scout, and Kevin Weidl was hired as a national scout. In analytics, Maya Harvey was hired as a football systems developer.

Jasinski has been with the Chargers since 2018, when he joined the team as a combine area scout after recruiting roles at Purdue and Northwestern. In two years, Los Angeles promoted him to an area scouting role, in which he covered the northeast area for two years and the plains area for the past three. The son of Titans pass game coordinator & cornerbacks coach Tony Oden, Bannerman-Oden entered the NFL as a video intern and external scouting game charter for the Browns in 2020. He joined the Chargers the next year as a pro scouting/operations intern and worked two years after that as a scouting assistant before getting promoted to college & pro scout last year.

Weidl reunites with second-year general manager Joe Hortiz, coming from Hortiz’s old team in Baltimore. Weidl ended an eight-year stretch with the Ravens, in which time he served as a southeast/southwest area scout for four years and a southeast/midwest area scout for the other four. Before arriving in Baltimore, Weidl spent 10 years with ESPN Scouts Inc.

Harvey earns her new job after working as a fellow for the Chargers during the final year of her computer science degree program (with a concentration on human computer interaction) at Stanford last year. In addition to her computer science background, Harvey was an athlete for the Cardinal, lettering all four years in beach volleyball.

Here are a few other staff updates from around the AFC:

  • The Texans were the other team to make multiple additions in the month of June. In the front office, Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 tells us that Mack Marrone has joined the staff as a scouting and administration assistant. The son of Patriots offensive line coach Doug Marrone, Marrone debuts in the NFL after finishing a collegiate playing career as a linebacker at Colgate. The second addition in Houston was Will Stokes who joins the analytics department as a football data analyst, according to Neil Stratton of SucceedinFootball.com. Stokes worked last summer as a football data analyst with the Commanders.
  • Jon Dykema can’t seem to keep away from the NFL. Four months after leaving the Lions to serve as Michigan State’s executive senior associate athletic director and assistant general counsel, Matt Zenitz of 247Sports reports that Dykema is expected to be hired by the Jaguars. His role in Jacksonville is not year known, but his 14 years in Detroit were spent as the team’s director of football compliance.
  • Per Stratton, the Colts have promoted Greg Liverpool III to midlands area scout. He began in football working recruiting internships throughout his education at Coastal Carolina and served internships for the Colts doing operations during training camps in 2021 and 2022 and for the NFL Scouting Combine in 2022. In 2023, he joined Indianapolis in a full-time role, serving as a scouting assistant until this promotion.
  • The Ravens have hired Ramon Ruiz away from Rutgers, according to Zenitz. Most recently serving as the Scarlet Knights director of recruiting, Ruiz has reportedly been a key contributor to head coach Greg Schiano‘s turnaround of the Rutgers football program, helping the team to winning records in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 12 years. Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic adds that Ruiz’s title with the team will be player personnel assistant.
  • Lastly, ESPN’s Seth Walder tells us that the Patriots have hired Max Mulitz as personnel analytics coordinator. Mulitz came to the NFL as a full-time intern in the Eagles’ data research department in 2015. Three years later, the Dolphins hired him as a football analyst and promoted him to manager of coaching analytics after just a year. He held the position for four seasons before parting ways with Miami in March. Mulitz joins Ekene Olekanma as the second analytics hire for New England this month.

NFL Draft Pick Signings: 6/20/25

June 20th, 2025 at 5:52pm CST by Adam La Rose

Friday’s lone draft pick signing:

New England Patriots

With Woodson now on the books, running back TreVeyon Henderson is the only member of New England’s draft class which has not yet signed. A deal for the latter may not be coming any time soon, of course, given the precedent set earlier this spring for second-round picks receiving fully guaranteed deals and the logjam which now exists for players picked during that round.

Traded Draft Picks For 2026

June 18th, 2025 at 10:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

Many months remain before teams know where they are picking in the 2026 draft, but many clubs have made moves to acquire 2026 draft capital. Headlined by the Browns and Rams’ efforts, here are the 2026 picks to have changed hands thus far. When more deals involving picks are made (or conditions on moves already completed become known), that information will be added.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

AFC East Notes: Bills, Wilkins, Hilton, Pats

June 13th, 2025 at 11:25am CST by Sam Robinson

Formerly a GM candidate, Lake Dawson has not come up on the PFR pages since 2019. But the former NFL wide receiver had remained a key presence in the Bills‘ front office. The longtime Brandon Beane lieutenant, however, is no longer with the franchise. Dawson joined Oklahoma’s staff under new Sooners GM Jim Nagy. The SEC program announced Dawson’s addition as senior assistant GM recently. Dawson, 53, played for the Chiefs from 1994-97, being a regular starter during the back half of Marty Schottenheimer‘s tenure. He has nearly 25 years’ worth of experience on the personnel side, moving from the Seahawks to the Titans to the Browns to the Bills. The Panthers twice interviewed Dawson for their GM job before rehiring Marty Hurney in 2018. Dawson turned down an offer to become the Dolphins’ GM in 2014. The former Tennessee VP of player personnel had been Buffalo’s assistant director of college scouting, but he will follow Joe Schoen in leaving the team for another opportunity.

Here is the latest from the AFC East:

Load More Posts