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New England Patriots News & Rumors

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/9/20

September 9th, 2020 at 2:31pm CST by Zachary Links

We’ll keep track of today’s practice squad updates here:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

  • Signed: T Greg Senat

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Las Vegas Raiders

  • Signed: OT Jaryd Jones-Smith

New England Patriots

  • Signed: G Corey Levin
  • Released: FB Paul Quessenberry

New Orleans Saints

  • Signed: DE Marcus Willoughby

Philadelphia Eagles

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Aqib Talib Retires From NFL

September 9th, 2020 at 11:39am CST by Zachary Links

Longtime NFL cornerback Aqib Talib is calling it a career. Talib announced his retirement on his talk show, where he’ll be turning his full attention.

“Aqib Talib is officially retired, and I’m bringing my talents to the booth,” Talib said (Twitter link). “Football gave me so much in life. Once that negative thought crossed my mind, I was like, my heart, my competitive edge … like, I ain’t really in it like that no more… I just wasn’t feeling it no more, honestly.”

Talib, 34, appeared in five games with the Rams last year before suffering a rib injury. Then, just before the October trade deadline, he was shipped to the Dolphins. The deal was effectively a salary dump for Denver – Talib never suited up in Miami, and the Dolphins got a fifth-round pick out of the swap.

Still, there were opportunities for the hard-nosed veteran. Talib claims the Patriots offered him a one-year deal worth up to $6MM to help cover tight ends in specific packages. Ultimately, Talib turned it down, because the fire wasn’t there.

Talib entered the league as a first-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2008 and starred for them up until 2012, when he was shipped to the Patriots in a midseason trade. Talib captured his first Pro Bowl nod with the Pats in 2013 and later won a championship ring with the Broncos in Super Bowl 50. He leaves the game with 462 career tackles, 125 pass breakups and 35 interceptions across 148 games.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/8/20

September 8th, 2020 at 5:23pm CST by Zachary Links

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Denver Broncos

New England Patriots

Seattle Seahawks

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/7/20

September 7th, 2020 at 12:01pm CST by Zachary Links

Today’s minor moves:

Carolina Panthers

  • Signed: TE Colin Thompson

Dallas Cowboys

New England Patriots

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

  • Signed: CB Cre’Von LeBlanc

Seattle Seahawks

AFC East Notes: Gilmore, Bell, Callaway

September 6th, 2020 at 10:55am CST by Rory Parks

Patriots star CB Stephon Gilmore is set to earn $10.5MM this year, which is quite a bargain when considering that the top of the CB market now features average annual values in the $17MM range. But it does not appear that Gilmore is pushing for a new deal at this time, and though he missed five practices in a row last month, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com says the absence was not contract-related.

Now for a few more AFC East items:

  • For months, Jarrett Stidham looked like he would be the Patriots‘ starting QB and would serve as the heir apparent to Tom Brady. But now, Reiss says Stidham might actually be the third-stringer behind Cam Newton and Brian Hoyer, and his inability to generate any momentum in training camp has cast his long-term future in doubt.
  • In the same piece linked above, Reiss says that Jermaine Eluemunor has definitively seized the Patriots’ RT job.
  • Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, Jets RB Le’Veon Bell says he has no issues with head coach Adam Gase. In his first comments since his publicly questioning Gase’s decision to pull him out of a recent scrimmage, Bell said, “I don’t understand why everybody is trying to put me and Gase against each other. We’re not against each other. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to believe, but we actually like each other” (via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com). Though Bell may not make it past this year’s trading deadline with Gang Green, it is in his and Gase’s best interests to limit the drama and focus on getting Bell back to his old form.
  • Former Browns receiver Antonio Callaway recently tried out for the Dolphins, as Albert Breer of SI.com notes (via Twitter). Callaway, a 2018 fourth-round pick, has plenty of promise but has had a very rocky start to his pro career, including two separate suspensions for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. He hooked on with the XFL’s Tampa Bay Vipers in January but suffered a leg injury shortly after signing, and this is the first time we have heard his name in NFL circles since then.
  • The Dolphins just waived QB Josh Rosen, and as Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald tweets, the team could now reunite with Jake Rudock, who spent last season on the Miami practice squad.

Patriots Release RB Lamar Miller

September 5th, 2020 at 10:56am CST by Ben Levine

Lamar Miller‘s stint with the Patriots has come to an end, at least temporarily. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports (via Twitter) that New England has cut the veteran running back.

However, as Tom Pelissero of NFL.com notes on Twitter, the Patriots fully guaranteed $200K of Miller’s base salary. Therefore, it “wouldn’t be a surprise” to see Miller return to New England, especially if the team were to suffer an injury at running back.

Miller signed a one-year deal with the Patriots last month. It was only a year ago that the 29-year-old tore his ACL in a preseason contest while playing for the Texans. Reports at the time of the signing indicated that Miller was fully recovered, and Pelissero notes in his tweet that the veteran is “healthy.”

If that’s true, then Miller could end up being a great grab for an RB-needy team. He earned a Pro Bowl nod during his last healthy season, rushing for five scores and 973 yards on 210 carries (4.6 yards per carry) with the Texans. He also added 25 receptions for 163 receiving yards and one touchdown during that 2018 campaign.

The Patriots have a propensity for adding veteran players to see if they’ve got anything left in the tank, but Miller wasn’t necessarily expected to just stick around for camp. Rather, it was thought that he’d play a rotational role with New England. Ultimately, the team seems content to move forward with their current grouping of Damien Harris, Sony Michel, James White, and Rex Burkhead.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/3/20

September 3rd, 2020 at 5:33pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Thursday’s minor moves, with the list being updated throughout the day:

Atlanta Falcons

  • Released from IR via injury settlement: TE Khari Lee

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Indianapolis Colts

New England Patriots

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Patriots Name Cam Newton Starting QB

September 3rd, 2020 at 3:05pm CST by Rory Parks

No surprises here, but the Patriots have named Cam Newton their starting quarterback, as Jim McBride of the Boston Globe was first to report. Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald adds that Newton has been voted a team captain (Twitter link).

For a long time after Tom Brady‘s abdication, New England insisted that it was comfortable moving forward with second-year pro Jarrett Stidham as its starting signal-caller. But the team managed to sign Newton for peanuts at the end of June, and as soon as that happened, the 2015 MVP became the odds-on favorite to succeed Brady as the Patriots’ QB1.

Newton has undergone three surgeries since the beginning of the 2017 offseason — two shoulder procedures and a foot operation — and he has missed 16 of the last 18 games. His 2019 season was almost completely wiped out by injury, but he looked like his usual brilliant self through the first 12 weeks of the 2018 campaign, and he ended that year having completed a career-best 67.9% of his throws for 3,395 yards, 24 TDs, and 13 picks. He also showed that he can still make plays with his feet – he tallied 488 rushing yards and four scores on 101 carries.

The most recent reports out of training camp suggested that Newton has not been perfect in practices, but he has been plenty good enough to beat out Stidham — who has been dealing with a hip injury — and Brian Hoyer. And he clearly has ingratiated himself with his new teammates, as evidenced by his captaincy.

Things will feel very different in Foxborough this year without Brady, but between Newton and the Pats’ defense, New England may not be ready to give up its stranglehold on the AFC East just yet.

Patriots Release Mohamed Sanu

September 2nd, 2020 at 5:04pm CST by Ben Levine

Mohamed Sanu‘s stint with the Patriots has already come to an end. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports (via Twitter) that New England has released the veteran wideout.

The move comes as a bit of a surprise; it was less than a year ago that the Patriots sent a second-rounder to Atlanta for the receiver. However, the 31-year-old underwhelmed during his eight regular season games (six starts) with New England, hauling in 26 receptions (on 47 targets) for 207 yards and one score. He was also invisible during the Patriots’ playoff loss to the Titans, as he caught a single 11-yard pass.

Sanu landed on PUP to start camp in early August, and reports have indicated that he’s been a step slow throughout the month. Ultimately, the Patriots decided to just move on from the veteran, clearing the team $6.5MM in cap space.

There are plenty of receiver-needy teams throughout the NFL, so it shouldn’t take Sanu very long to find another gig. Plus, he’s only a season removed from a 2018 campaign where he finished with a career-high 838 receiving yards to go along with 66 receptions and four touchdowns.

While the Patriots offense was already going to look a whole lot different in 2020 with Cam Newton at the helm, it was still assumed that Sanu would lead the depth chart along with Julian Edelman. Now, the team will see what they can get from former first-rounder N’Keal Harry, as well as the likes of Damiere Byrd, Gunner Olszewski, and Devin Ross.

Patriots Interested In Leonard Fournette

September 2nd, 2020 at 3:46pm CST by Sam Robinson

Leonard Fournette cleared waivers Tuesday and has at least one suitor as a free agent. The Patriots have expressed interest in the former No. 4 overall pick, Jeff Howe of The Athletic tweets.

The Pats saw 2018 first-rounder Sony Michel miss time again during training camp, and although recent signing Lamar Miller has been cleared and 2019 third-round pick Damien Harris has impressed, New England’s backfield is somewhat muddled as the regular season approaches.

Despite the Jaguars waiving Fournette, he should garner interest from more than just the Patriots. The LSU product has two 1,000-yard seasons on his resume. He played a key role in helping a Blake Bortles-quarterbacked team to the 2017 AFC championship game, where the Jags narrowly lost to the Patriots.

Last season, Fournette rushed for a career-high 1,152 yards. However, he has only cleared 4.0 yards per carry once in a season (2019) and slumped through an injury- and suspension-marred 2018 slate. Fournette, 25, does not offer much in the passing game, but the Patriots have a veteran passing-down specialist in James White.

New England returns Michel, Rex Burkhead and White from its 2019 rotation but signed Miller last month. Miller is attempting to return from a torn ACL. Neither he nor Michel is eligible to be stashed on the Pats’ reserve/PUP list.

Thus far, however, the Patriots represent Fournette’s only known suitor. The Bears, who are without David Montgomery currently, are not looking to sign him.

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