He's back on the market. The former Patriots free agent disappointment who didn't pan out in New England is now a free agent again after Pittsburgh cut him loose. And before you dismiss this as just another bust rehashing his failures, hear me out: this might actually matter for our roster construction.
Look, we all remember how this went the first time. The Pats invested draft capital and cap space. It didn't work. The fit was wrong, the execution was worse, and frankly, the whole thing felt like a rare miss by the front office. But here's what actually happened under the lights in Pittsburgh: he got real snaps. Real opportunities. And Pittsburgh's brass decided he wasn't worth keeping around either. That's the kind of feedback that matters. When a Mike Tomlin defense—one of the toughest schemes in football—spits you out, you're genuinely cooked.
But the Patriots shouldn't be done with him. Not yet. Not if the price is right. Here's why: We have a specific need at [position], and while this guy didn't fill it before, he might in a different role, under different scheme demands, with clearer expectations. The last time we brought back a former disappointment and got it right was [relevant comp], and that worked because we were honest about what he could and couldn't do. We didn't ask him to be something he wasn't. We asked him to be exactly who he was—just better deployed.
The cap situation is manageable if he comes in on a prove-it deal. One year, veteran minimum or close to it. No guaranteed money. No second-guessing. Either he shows us something in training camp and preseason, or he becomes a practice squad depth option. That's the Patriots way when we're picking through free agency scraps in March.
The real question isn't whether he was a bust before. He was. It happens. The real question is whether he's learned anything, and whether Bill Belichick's successor sees something in the tape that Pittsburgh missed. Sometimes the best value in free agency isn't finding a hidden gem. It's giving an old mistake a chance to become a bargain. This is a low-risk, conditional-upside play. That's smart roster building.
Based on reporting from MassLive Patriots.