The New England Patriots remain busy modifying the back end of their roster. After releasing safety Elliott Davison on Monday, they made two other depth moves on Tuesday.
Offensive tackle Marcus Bryant was activated from injured reserve to the active roster, with cornerback Kindle Vildor released. The moves mean that the Patriots still have one open spot on their 53-man team — one considered likely to be used on another player set to come off of IR soon, such as wide receiver Mack Hollins.
What else
do Tuesday’s moves mean, though? Let’s take a closer look at them through a big-picture lens.
OT Marcus Bryant: Activated off IR
During the regular season and obviously depending on each individual situation, every NFL team has the opportunity to bring up to eight players back from its injured reserve list. Entering Tuesday, the Patriots had used two such spots already — one on wide receiver A.J. Brown, who returned in Week 6, and the other on Bryant: he had already been declared as a return candidate back when he was first sent to IR in late August.
This, of course, means that Tuesday’s activation did not change the eight-player return count; New England is still on 2-of-8 spots used. What the transaction means, however, is that he has rejoined the 53-man roster just in time before his 21-day activation window came to a close.
As a consequence, the Patriots are now five players deep at offensive tackle:
53-man roster (5): Will Campbell (66 | LT), Morgan Moses (76 | RT), Caleb Lomu (74), Dametrious Crownover (68), Marcus Bryant (52)
Practice squad (1): Lorenz Metz (61 | exempt)
Will Campbell and Morgan Moses are entrenched as the starters, with Caleb Lomu having shown intriguing talent whenever entering the field for one of the two. The fourth spot, meanwhile, will be worth keeping an eye on moving forward. If we base the projection off of training camp and preseason, Bryant would be OT4 — in fact, he even had a case for OT3 after the summer — over rookie Dametrious Crownover.
At the very least, Bryant’s return gives New England more flexibility and options up front. That includes using Caleb Lomu as an emergency interior lineman, even though the team clearly would prefer to keep him at tackle as much as possible.
CB Kindle Vildor: Released
Based on Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins, Vildor’s release comes as a minor surprise. While his 13 snaps on the day exclusively came on special teams, he was part of the game day roster as the fifth cornerback over rookies Karon Prunty and Channing Canada.
In fact, the two youngsters were made healthy scratches. And yet, on Tuesday, it was the veteran — who has so far out-snapped both of them on the season — to be let go.
The why has yet to be determined, although it seems that his status might be directly tied to that of cornerback Carlton Davis, who had missed three games due to a neck injury before returning on Sunday. With Davis back in the lineup, roster flexibility seemingly outweighed the need for a seventh player at the position regardless of experience or résumé.
For the time being, New England’s cornerback group therefore now looks like this:
53-man roster (6): Christian Gonzalez (0), Carlton Davis III (7), Marcus Jones (25 | PR), Charles Woods (22), Channing Canada (29), Karon Prunty (21)
Practice squad (1): Al’zillion Hamilton (26)
The expectation is that Vildor could be brought back to the practice squad in the near future. If so, he would naturally become a candidate for game-day elevation again should the circumstances require such a move. Already having used one such elevation earlier in the season, the Patriots can bring him up two more times down the stretch this year.
As noted above, his (or Elliott Davison’s, depending on how you look at it) roster spot is meanwhile likely to go to a player currently still on injured reserve. Wide receiver Mack Hollins and fullback Reggie Gilliam are eligible to return to practice this week, while offensive lineman Greg Van Roten is among other players who could make a comeback at any point.
