FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots announced today a series of roster moves to reach the mandatory 53-man roster limit.
The Patriots released 21 players, placed one on injured reserve, placed four players on the reserve/physically unable to perform list and two players on the reserve/non-football injury list.
The Patriots also announced that they have acquired OL Yasir (YAH-seer) Durant in a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs. Terms of the trade were not announced. Durant, 23, originally entered the NFL a as a rookie free agent with Kansas City in 2020 out of Missouri. The 6-foot-7, 330-pounder played in 11 games with one start at right guard vs. the L.A. Chargers on Jan. 3, 2021.
RESERVE LISTS
The Patriots placed DL Byron Cowart, CB Stephon Gilmore LB Terez Hall and QB Jarrett Stidham on the reserve/physical unable to perform list, 2021 draft picks S Joshuah Bledsoe and LB Cameron McGrone on the reserve/non-football injury list and LB Anfernee Jennings on injured reserve.
RELEASED PLAYERS
The Patriots released the following players: DL Montravius Adams, DL Tashawn Bower, DB Myles Bryant, DB Adrian Colbert, OL Korey Cunningham, OL James Ferentz, K Nick Folk, QB Brian Hoyer, CB Michael Jackson Sr., TE Matt LaCosse, DL Bill Murray, QB Cam Newton, WR Tre Nixon, OL Alex Redmond, DB D'Angelo Ross, OL Will Sherman, DL Akeem Spence, DL Nick Thurman, DB Dee Virgin, WR Kristian Wilkerson and WR Isaiah Zuber.
Adams, 26, was signed by New England as an unrestricted free agent from Green Bay on March 19, 2021. The 6-foot-4, 304-pounder is a veteran of four NFL seasons with Green Bay after being drafted by the team in the third round (93rd overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft out of Auburn. He has played in 45 regular season games with three starts and has registered 44 total tackles, 1½ sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and three passes defensed. In addition, he has played in two postseason games. He was limited to eight games last season and finished with 11 total tackles.
Bower, 26, originally signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a rookie free agent out of Louisiana State on May 5, 2017. The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder appeared in seven regular season games as a reserve over two seasons for the Vikings and totaled seven tackles and one sack. Bower began the 2019 season on Minnesota's non-football injury list before being finishing the season on the Patriots practice squad. He started the season on the practice squad, was elevated to the 53-man roster two times and then signed to the 53-man roster in early November. Bower appeared in seven games last season with three starts and finished with 11 total tackles.
Bryant, 23, originally joined New England as a rookie free agent on Sept. 16, 2020. The 5-foot-9, 185-pounder began the season on the practice squad before being signed to the 53-man roster prior to the first game of the year. He played in nine games and finished with 10 total tackles, one interception and two special teams tackles.
Colbert, 27, a veteran of four NFL seasons with San Francisco (2017-18), Miami (2019) and the New York Giants (2020), was signed by New England on May 21, 2021. The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder originally entered the NFL as a seventh-round draft pick (229th overall) by San Francisco in the 2017 NFL Draft out of Miami (Fla.). Overall, Colbert has played in 33 regular season games with 19 starts and totaled 65 tackles, eight passes defensed, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and nine special teams tackles. Last season with the Giants, Colbert played in six games with two starts and finished with seven tackles.
Cunningham, 26, was acquired by New England from Arizona in a trade on Aug. 29, 2019, in exchange for a 2020 sixth-round draft pick. The 6-foot-6, 311-pounder originally entered the NFL as a seventh-round draft pick by Arizona (254th overall) out of Cincinnati in the 2018 NFL Draft. He has played in 18 games with six starts in the regular season and one postseason game. Last season, he played in 11 games as a reserve.
Ferentz, 32, has accrued five seasons of NFL experience over the past seven years with Houston (2014), Denver (2015-16) and New England (2017-20). The 6-foot-2, 300-pounder has played in 45 regular season games with four starts and two postseason games as a reserve during his career. Ferentz originally entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with Houston out of Iowa on May 16, 2014. Following his rookie season on the Texans practice squad and two years with the Broncos, Ferentz signed with New England on May 18, 2017. He spent 2017 and part of the 2018 season on the Patriots practice squad before being added to the 53-man roster on Nov. 3, 2018. He played in two regular season games as a reserve and was inactive for all three postseason contests. In 2019, Ferentz played in a career-high 15 regular season games with two starts and appeared as a reserve in one playoff game. Ferentz began the 2020 season on the New England practice squad before being signed to the 53-man roster on Sept. 26,2020. He played in seven games with two starts at center.
Folk, 36, was re-signed by the Patriots on March 23, 2021. The 6-foot-1, 222-pounder is a veteran of 13 NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboys (2007-09), New York Jets (2010-16), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2017) and the Patriots (2019-20). He has played in 177 regular season games and converted 285-of-350 field-goal attempts and 384-of-391 extra-point attempts for 1,239 career points. He has also appeared in five postseason contests and made 5-of-6 field-goal attempts and all 11 extra-point tries. Folk earned Pro Bowl honors as a rookie in 2007 and was selected to the Pro Football Writer's All-Rookie team that season.
Hoyer, 35, originally joined the Patriots as a rookie free agent out of Michigan State in 2009. The 6-foot-2, 216-pounder is a veteran of 12 NFL seasons and has spent time with Arizona (2012), Pittsburgh (2012), Cleveland (2013-14), Houston (2015), Chicago (2016), San Francisco (2017) and Indianapolis (2019), in addition to New England. He went to training camp with the Patriots in 2019 and was released on Aug. 31, before being signed by Indianapolis on Sept. 2. He was re-signed by New England on March 25, 2020 and spent the entire season with the team. Hoyer served as the backup quarterback for three games and was inactive for 12 games. He started against the Chiefs in Kansas City on Oct. 5 and completed 15-of-24 passes for 130 yards and one interception. With that start against the Chiefs, Hoyer joined Ryan Fitzpatrick, Chris Chandler and Gus Frerotte as the only NFL quarterbacks to make at least one start for seven different teams. He has made starts for the Patriots, Cardinals, Browns, Texans, Bears, 49ers and Colts.
Overall, Hoyer has played in 70 career regular season games with 39 starts and has completed 888-of-1,501 passes for 10,404 yards with 52 touchdowns and 35 interceptions. He has also played in two postseason contests with one start and completed 15-of-34 pass attempts with no touchdowns and four interceptions. Hoyer has made 24 appearances with one start for New England in the regular season and has completed 47-of-75 pass attempts for 465 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
Jackson, 24, originally joined New England after being acquired in a trade with Detroit on Aug. 9, 2020. He was released prior to the start of the regular season and spent most of the year on the practice squad before being signed to the 53-man roster from the practice squad on Jan. 2, 2021 and playing in the final game of the year. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder entered the NFL as a fifth-round draft pick (158th overall) of Dallas out of Miami (Fla.) in the 2019 NFL Draft. He spent the first half of his rookie season on the Dallas practice squad before being signed by Detroit to the 53-man roster.
LaCosse, 28, was signed by New England as a free agent on March 15, 2019. The 6-foot-6, 255-pounder exercised his reserve/opt-out decision and did not play last season. LaCosse originally entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with the New York Giants out of Illinois in 2015. He has spent time with the Giants (2015-17) and the Denver Broncos (2017-18) and has played in 33 NFL games with 14 starts, registering 40 receptions for 403 yards with two touchdowns.
Murray, 24, joined New England as a rookie free agent out of William & Mary in 2020 and spent the season on the practice squad. The 6-foot-4, 265-pounder was a two-year letter winner and served as a team captain as a senior.
Newton, 32, was signed by the Patriots as a free agent on July 8, 2020. The 6-foot-5, 245-pounder originally entered the NFL as a first-round draft pick (1st overall) by the Carolina Panthers out of Auburn in the 2011 NFL Draft. He has played in 140 regular season games with 139 starts and has completed 2,613 of his 4,388 attempts for 31,698 yards with 190 touchdowns and 118 interceptions. Newton has also started in seven postseason games and has completed 134-of-224 passes for 1,821 yards with 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Last season with the Patriots, Newton started in all 15 games that he played and completed 242-of-368 passes for 2657 yards with eight touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also set a team quarterback record with 137 rushing attempts for 592 yards and tied the team record with 12 rushing touchdowns.
Nixon, 23, was drafted by the Patriots in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft (242nd overall) out of Central Florida. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder began his career at Ole Miss before transferring to Central Florida. He was limited to just four games in 2020, but earned honorable mention All-AAC honors in 2019.
Redmond, 26, was signed by New England on May 17, 2021. He originally entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals on May 6, 2016, out of UCLA. After spending his rookie season on the Bengals practice squad, Redmond made the 53-man roster in 2017. During four seasons in Cincinnati, Redmond played in 32 games with 24 starts at right guard. Redmond began the 2020 season on the Bengals practice squad before being signed to the 53-man roster. He played in nine games with seven starts at right guard.
Ross, 24, signed with the Patriots as a rookie free agent in 2019 out of New Mexico and spent his rookie season on injured reserve. The 5-foot-9, 190-pounder spent the majority of the 2020 season on the practice squad before being elevated to the 53-man roster prior to the season finale against the New York Jets. He was inactive for that game.
Sherman, 22, was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft with the 197th overall selection out of Colorado. The 6-foot-4, 310-pounder played in 30 games with 27 starts.
Spence, 29, was signed to the New England practice squad on Nov. 21, 2020 and then to the 53-man roster on Dec. 5, 2020. The 6-foot-1, 303-pounder is a veteran of eight NFL seasons with Tampa Bay (2013-16), Detroit (2017), Miami (2018), Philadelphia (2019), Jacksonville (2019) and New England (2020). Spence originally entered the NFL as a fourth-round draft pick (100th overall) by Tampa Bay out of Illinois in the 2013 NFL Draft. Spence has played in 109 regular season games with 57 starts and totaled 204 tackles, 10½ sacks, one forced fumble and three fumble recoveries.
Thurman, 26, was signed to the 53-man roster from the practice squad on Oct. 31, 2020, after being elevated to the 53-man roster four times. The 6-foot-4, 305-pounder, played in seven games with one start and finished with 10 total tackles last season. The 6-foot-4, 305-pounder originally entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with the Houston Texans out of the University of Houston in 2018 and spent the 2019 season on the Patriots practice squad.
Virgin, 27, signed with New England on Jan. 1, 2021, and was inactive for the last game. He spent time on the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams practice squads in 2020 and was elevated to the Lions 53-man roster for two games and recorded one special teams tackle. After being released by Detroit on Dec. 17, Virgin signed with the Rams practice squad on Dec. 22 and was released on Dec. 29. The 5-foot-9, 195-pounder originally entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with the Houston Texans in 2017 out of West Alabama. He spent his rookie season on the Texans practice squad and was released at the end of the training camp in 2018. Virgin was claimed off waivers by Detroit, where he spent time on the Lions 53-man roster and practice squad. Overall, he has played in 21 career regular season games and registered 12 special teams tackles.
Wilkerson, 24, originally entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with the Tennessee out of Southeast Missouri State and joined the Patriots practice squad prior to the start of the regular season. The 6-foot-1, 201-pounder was elevated to the New England 53-man roster prior the victory at the New York Jets on Nov. 9 and played two snaps on offense.
Zuber, 24, originally signed with New England as a rookie free agent out of Mississippi state on May 5, 2020. The 6-foot, 190-pounder, began the season on the practice squad and was elevated to the 53-man roster four times, appearing in four games as a reserve. He caught two passes for 29 yards and had two rushing attempts for 21 yards.
QUICK LINKS: Current Roster | Unofficial Depth Chart | Schedule
