RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - AUGUST 13: Channing Canada #29 of the New England Patriots completes a catch prior to an NFL preseason football game against the Indianapolis Colts at Gillette Stadium on August 13, 2026 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The New England Patriots were quite busy over the weekend, making 42 combined transactions to go from previously 91 to 53 players on their active roster . A majority of those moves were expected to happen, but the team of head coach Mike Vrabel nonetheless managed to pull off some minor surprises.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the moves that can be qualified as surprises through the lens of our established winners and losers format. It would be easy to label the 53 men on the active roster as winners and the rest as losers, but every situation is different and the reality much more nuanced than simply asking who is in or out.
Winners
QB Behren Morton: With Drake Maye a franchise-caliber player and Tommy DeVito an able and experienced backup, the top of the Patriots’ quarterback depth chart was set in stone throughout the summer. The question was whether or not Morton had done enough to warrant being kept as one of the 53 players on the roster. Turns out he had. Despite some shortcomings elsewhere on the team, he made it through cutdown day as QB3 and the projected emergency option on game day.
OT Dametrious Crownover: Shortly before the cutdown deadline at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, the Patriots made a trade with the Vikings to bring in versatile offensive lineman Walter Rouse, a player capable of lining up at both tackle and guard. And yet, despite his presence, the team decided to keep four pure tackles on the initial 53. Three of those — Will Campbell, Morgan Moses, Caleb Lomu — were set in stone to begin with, but Crownover’s position seemed less secure with Rouse in the mix. However, he seemingly had nothing to worry about and done enough over the summer to secure a roster spot in lieu of nominal OT4 Marcus Bryant .
ED Quintayvious Hutchins: The defensive edge had been in the spotlight going back to the offseason, and it remains a question at this point as well. Through the cutdown deadline, however, the Patriots opted to go with four players, Hutchins among them. His inclusion over fellow edges Bradyn Swinson and Jesse Luketa might have come surprisingly, but the seventh-round draft pick has developed nicely over the summer to make the pair expendable.
LB Namdi Obiazor: Obiazor was only used occasionally with the first-team defense in training camp, but he quickly carved out a core role as a five-unit special teams presence. Ultimately, this played a key part in him making the 53-man team and the Patriots opening the year with five off-ball linebackers on the roster — perhaps a surprising number considering that the group as a whole had its ups and downs over the last few weeks.
CB Channing Canada: Three undrafted rookie free agents made it onto New England’s initial 53-man team, the highest such number since 2017. Tight end Tanner Arkin and linebacker Khalil Jacobs had been in that conversation from early on in training camp, but Channing Canada might have come as a surprise. The youngster did have some positive moments, but on the whole appeared to be less actively involved with the top-level defense than other cornerbacks. His relative steadiness compared to some of his competition might have made the difference, though, as might have his ability to line up on special teams, most prominently as a gunner.
The preseason injury group: The aforementioned Khalil Jacobs was one of multiple players heading into cutdown weekend facing injury questions. Not all of them were able to make it onto the 53-man team, but a handful of players were. Besides Jacobs, the Patriots have also kept interior offensive lineman Ben Brown and punter Bryce Baringer on their active roster to open the year — a positive development from a depth perspective.
Losers
DT Eric Gregory: Beyond the top trio of Milton Williams, Christian Barmore and Cory Durden, the Patriots’ interior defensive line was not settled coming out of preseason. This meant that a player like Gregory could have had a realistic shot at making it given that he had some solid moments in camp and at 319 pounds was the heaviest player out of the group, and thus possibly best-suited to fill the vacant nose tackle role. Alas, the team decided to go in a different direction and go with Joshua Farmer as the top backup run defender.
CB Kindle Vildor: Signed as an unrestricted free agent in March, Vildor appeared to be in a competitive position to earn a role as a fourth or fifth cornerback since all the way back in the offseason. And while he did have a lull early in training camp, he seemingly was able to bounce back and put himself on the road to the roster by mid-August. However, he never fully grasped a spot and was eventually undone by a bad performance in the preseason finale — so much so that the team opted to carry rookies Karon Prunty and Channing Canada on the 53-man roster over him.
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