The New England Patriots’ roster experienced some massive turnover over the last few months, with one third of 2024’s final roster no longer with the team heading into 2025. Among those who did manage to stay put is a player with plenty of familiarity with new head coach Mike Vrabel, linebacker and special teamer Monty Rice.
Hard facts
Name: Monty Rice
Position: Off-ball linebacker/Special teamer
Jersey number: 45
Opening day age: 26 (1/8/1999)
Measurements: 6’0 3/8”, 233 lbs, 75” wingspan, 30 3/4” arm length, 8 5/8”
hand size, 4.58s 40-yard dash, 7.34s 3-cone drill, 4.33s short shuttle, 32” vertical jump, 10’1” broad jump, 7.20 Relative Athletic Score
Experience
NFL: Tennessee Titans (2021-23), New Orleans Saints (2023), Atlanta Falcons (2024), New England Patriots (2024-) | College: Georgia (2017-20)
Rice received almost two dozen scholarship offers as a three-star recruit out of James Clemens High School in Madison, AL. He initially committed to LSU but later flipped to Georgia, where he spent the entirety of his four-year college career. In four seasons as a Bulldog, he appeared in 47 games with 28 starts and registered 219 tackles, a pair of sacks, three forced fumbles and one recovery.
A first-team All-SEC selection as a senior in 2020, Rice was selected 92nd overall in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Titans. However, a combination of injuries and uneven play prevented him from earning a regular role in Tennessee and led to him being released in December 2023. He later spent time in New Orleans and Atlanta without seeing any game action before joining the Patriots in November 2024.
In total, he has appeared in 36 games since entering the NFL. Rice started 11 of those contests and notched a combined 129 tackles between defense and special teams.
Scouting report
Strengths: Rice is a linear athlete at the second level, who has sufficient speed and range in pursuit and a quick and confident downhill trigger in the run game. He has the natural instincts needed to dissect blocking patterns and find his gaps, and provides the physicality needed to succeed at the point of attack. He also is a technically advanced wrap-up tackler with experience both as an off-ball linebacker as well as a four-unit special teamer.
Weaknesses: Standing at only 6 feet and 233 pounds, Rice is an undersized player whose overall athletic skillset is adequate at best. He is slow-footed making cuts and does not display the same level of comfort dropping back into coverage compared to attacking downhill versus the run. This, in turn, can lead to some hesitation in zone coverage, against misdirection concepts and when facing slightly advanced formations or route combinations.
2024 review
Stats (Atlanta): 0 games
Stats (New England): 3 games (1 start) | 5 defensive snaps (0.5%), 42 special teams snaps (9.6%) | 1 special teams tackle, 1 missed tackle (50%)
Season recap: After ending the 2023 season on the Saints’ practice squad, Rice was retained via a futures contract in the offseason. He went on to spend all of training camp and preseason in New Orleans, playing a combined 52 defensive and special teams snaps over the course of two exhibition contests. The fact that none of those came in the Week 2 dress rehearsal was a sign of things to come.
Ahead of the late-August roster cutdown deadline, Rice was released by the Saints. It did not take him long to find a new team, however, with the Falcons picking him up via their practice squad three days later.
Rice ended up spending two months on Atlanta’s developmental roster without seeing any game action. He was released by the team in late October and remained on the open market for two weeks. At that point, the Patriots signed him to their own practice squad.
The former third-round draft choice spent the remainder of the 2024 season in Foxborough and was elevated from the practice to the game-day squad on two occasions: he played a combined 26 special teams snaps and registered a tackle in Weeks 16 and 17 against the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers, respectively.
Ahead of the season finale versus Buffalo, Rice was signed to the 53-man roster. He added five defensive snaps as well as 16 in the kicking game to his résumé.
2025 preview
Position: Off-ball LB/Special teamer | Ability: Depth player/Role player/Depth special teamer | Contract: Signed through 2025
What will be his role? Rice projects to play a dual role for the Patriots. On one side, he offers experience and emergency depth at the off-ball linebacker position. On the other side, he is a positionally flexible kicking game performer who saw action on four units in his first year under New England special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer.
What is his growth potential? Entering his fifth year in the NFL, Rice should not be expected to suddenly make a massive jump. At this stage in his career, he is who he is as a player and any gains project to be marginal. That does not mean he won’t be able to carve out valuable role on the team moving forward, though.
Does he have positional versatility? Defensively speaking, Rice is not a particularly versatile player; he is purely an off-ball player best suited for early-down work versus the run. He is capable of playing on four special teams units, though, and can line up on kickoff and punt coverage as well as both return squads.
What is his salary cap situation? When Rice was promoted to the Patriots’ 53-man roster, he was so via a deal extending into 2025. That part of his contract came with a cap figure of $1.17 million, all of it in the form of a non-guaranteed base salary.
How safe is his roster spot? His low-level contract and inability to earn a regular role both last season and this spring hints at Rice’s standing on the team. He is firmly on the roster bubble, and will need to step up his game this summer to put himself in the conversation for a spot on the 53-man team or, more realistically, the 16-man practice squad.
Summary: Rice finds himself right on the intersection of defense and special teams, and is one of several players in that category fighting for a finite number of spots on the team. His experience and history with both Mike Vrabel and Jeremy Springer is a plus, but one has to wonder whether his limited upside and one-dimensionality as a defender will end up working against him.
What do you think about Monty Rice heading into the 2025 season? Please head down to the comment section to share your thoughts.
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