According to multiple reports Monday morning the Patriots may have one of the deeper tight end groups in football and the thinnest cornerback positions heading toward the 2015 season.
The biggest news of the day came when ESPN reported that New England was releasing veteran cornerback Kyle Arrington. The seventh-year veteran started four of 14 games played last season with the Patriots and was set to have a cap number of more than $4.5 million for 2015.
Multiple reports indicated that Arrington could return to New England on a more favorable cap figure, but as Bill Belichick so often reminds us, when you release a player you have to be comfortable with the obvious possibility of losing that player.
Arrington's release comes a week after New England also parted ways with former starter Alfonzo Dennard and as part of a spring that saw the Patriots lose 2014 starters Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner.
All told New England has now lost a combined 33 starts at cornerback from a year ago through the departures of Revis (16), Browner (9), Dennard (4) and Arrington (4).
Arrington has served as the Patriots primary slot cornerback the last couple seasons, a role in which he's shown impressive aptitude. He's also a former starter on the outside as well as one of the team's better long term special teams contributors.
New England's seemingly talent-and-experience-thin depth chart now includes Bradley Fletcher, Robert McClain, Logan Ryan, Malcolm Butler, Chimdi Chekwa, Justin Green and seventh-round rookie Darryl Roberts.
Prior to the Arrington news, multiple reports indicated that New England has reached a deal with former Redskins tight endFred Davis. Davis missed all of last season while indefinitely suspended by the NFL for multiple violations of the league's substance abuse policy but was reinstated last week and apparently is joining a now crowded Patriots tight end depth chart. Davis joins a group that includes Rob Gronkowski, Scott Chandler, Michael Hoomanawanui, Tim Wright and sixth-round rookie AJ Derby.
Davis is a6-4, 247-pound former second-round pick out of USC who has 162 catches and 13 touchdowns in 72 games in Washington. He's caught just seven passes in the last two seasons and suffered a torn Achilles in 2012, but had a pair of campaigns with 48 or more receptions, including a career-high 59 in 2011.
What do you think of Monday's reported moves? Worried about the cornerback position even more? Curious about the number of bodies at tight end? Let us now with a comment below!
