The New England Patriots made a change to their 53-man roster on Monday. Tight end Tanner Arkin, who had been with the team since his arrival as a rookie free agent earlier this year and had made the roster out of training camp, was waived.
Let’s assess what the move means for the Patriots.
Blocking tight end needed
The Patriots had four tight ends on their active roster coming out of Week 9, and all of them had seen the field during the 45-27 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. However, only three of the group — Hunter
Henry, Eli Raridon and Arkin — actually were employed on offense; the fourth tight end, Cameron Latu, played exclusively on special teams.
With Arkin now waived, the natural follow-up move would be to bump Latu up the depth chart and into a more expansive role as a third tight end and blocking option — one played by Arkin lately as well: in his five games so far, he played 50 snaps either run or pass blocking, and just 10 running routes.
That said, the Patriots might not turn to Latu to work as their TE3; the fact Arkin played over him can already be interpreted as the team not fully trusting him in such a role. Instead, New England might just keep its current arrangement in place and use first-round rookie offensive tackle Caleb Lomu as a sixth lineman and de facto blocking tight end (albeit without the occasional receiver rep).
Return an option
Looking solely at the traditional tight ends on the Patriots’ pay roll right now, we can see that the team is down to three on the active roster plus one each on the practice squad and on injured reserve. The hierarchy is pretty established among them, with Hunter Henry and Eli Raridon the clear 1-2 punch at the position.
53-man roster (3): Hunter Henry (85), Eli Raridon (82), Cameron Latu (36)
Practice squad (1): Tanner Conner (80)
Injured reserve (1): Julian Hill (80)
Should he pass through the waiver wire unclaimed, Arkin re-signing with New England’s practice squad appears to be a foregone conclusion. In that case, the team would be allowed to standard-elevate him to the game day roster on three separate occasions during the regular season.
Sign of things to come?
NFL teams can return up to eight players from injured reserve during the regular season, and the Patriots have taken advantage of that system four times so far. One would imagine that Arkin’s freed-up roster spot — that puts New England at 52 players — goes to a player set to come back from IR.
The prime candidate at the moment appears to be interior offensive lineman Greg Van Roten, who returned to practice last week to open his 21-day activation window. With left guard Ben Brown not expected to be ready for New England’s upcoming game in Germany against the Detroit Lions, more quality depth up front will be important and Van Roten would be able to provide just that.
Of course, the Patriots could also opt to go in a different direction. Arkin, after all, split his time between tight end, fullback and special teams this year. Maybe his spot goes to Reggie Gilliam, who is eligible to return from injured reserve as well and would be more of a 1-for-1 replacement.
UDFA class takes a hit
When the Patriots trimmed their roster to 53 players in late August, three undrafted rookie free agents made the cut. Arkin was one of them, joining linebacker Khalil Jacobs and cornerback Channing Canada. Two months later, only Canada remains on the active team: Arkin was just let go, while Jacobs has been on injured reserve since before the start of the regular season.
At the moment, though, another rookie free agent is on the 53-man roster as well. Linebacker Erick Hunter was picked up by New England after his release from the Detroit Lions in early September, and has seen regular snaps on special teams since then.
