Less than 24 hours after finalizing their initial 53-man roster for the upcoming season, the New England Patriots have already made a change. Wide receiver Kendrick Bourne was granted his release after a request that he be let go by the team.
According to reports, New England had previously attempted to trade Bourne to Minnesota but no such move materialized. Now, the 30-year-old has been removed from the team in a different fashion.
First WR down
The Patriots keeping eight wide receivers on their initial 53-man
roster was not expected, with Bourne arguably the most surprising member of that group. After all, he had missed much of training camp and all of preseason due to an injury suffered during New England’s in-stadium practice on Aug. 2.
With him now off the roster, only seven wide receivers remain standing on the team as a look at our regularly updated Patriots roster shows:
Wide receiver (7): Stefon Diggs (8), DeMario Douglas (3), Kayshon Boutte (9), Mack Hollins (13), Kyle Williams (18), Efton Chism III (86), Javon Baker (6)
Based on this summer, Stefon Diggs, DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte and Mack Hollins will be the core of the Patriots’ receiver group this season. Rookies Kyle Williams and Efton Chism, meanwhile, project as rotational role players and backup options at the position. Javon Baker will serve in that capacity, too, besides also working as a four-unit special teamer.
Tone-setter gone
Even though his on-field impact had been limited since suffering a torn ACL in October 2023, Bourne remained one of the preeminent voices in the Patriots locker room and a mentor for younger players. A tone-setter going back to his original arrival in 2021, he also was somebody who had experience in the offense run by coordinator Josh McDaniels.
With him now gone, the Patriots will rely on leadership from the other veterans at the position; Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins will have to pick up the slack. Both have shown that they are willing to do so after joining the team in free agency this offseason.
No waiver wire
Bourne, who first joined the NFL as an undrafted rookie with the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, was about to enter his fifth season in New England and ninth overall in the league. Given his experience, which includes a combined 115 regular season and playoff games between his stints with those two teams, he is classified as so-called vested veteran. This means that he will not hit the waiver wire and instead become a free agent right away.
Second release request
Bourne is not the first player asking the Patriots to release him this week. On Tuesday, safety Marcus Epps put in a similar request that was granted by the club. Players taking those measures is not unusual per se, but it is still rare to see it happen twice in a span of less than 24 hours — especially with one of those coming after the cutdown deadline.
Salary cap impact
Even though he was coming off a torn ACL at the time, the Patriots decided to re-sign Bourne before he made it to free agency in 2024. The two sides reached an agreement on a three-year, $19.5 million pact that would have kept him in New England through the 2026 season.
His release terminates that deal, but its impact on the salary cap can still be felt. According to cap expert Miguel Benzan, it creates savings of $5.31 million in 2025 plus another $5.62 million in 2026. Meanwhile, two signing bonus prorations of $1.4 million each will remain on the books as dead cap; one installment in 2025 and the other in 2026. A $158,820 offseason workout bonus falls in that same category for 2025, which means that Bourne’s release will leave a $1.56 million imprint on the Patriots’ books this year.
Meanwhile, another player will take his spot on the roster. The Patriots claimed two players off waivers on Wednesday, adding quarterback Tommy DeVito and cornerback Charles Woods, necessitating a second player to be removed from the original 53-man team.
