By 4 p.m. ET this Saturday, more than 1,000 NFL players will be out of a job. The New England Patriots plan to have a detailed scouting report on each and every one.
Speaking five days before the NFL’s mandatory cutdown day, when all rosters must be trimmed from 90 players to 53, Patriots coach Bill Belichick discussed the herculean task facing the team’s personnel department, led by director of player personnel Nick Caserio and pro scouting director Dave Ziegler.
“I think Nick and Dave Ziegler and the guys in that department do a great job,” Belichick said in his Monday morning news conference at Gillette Stadium. “I think they’re on top of it. I can ask them about any player in the league, and they can tell me about what that player’s situation is, who he’s in competition with, how he’s looked, what games he’s played in. (Is he) better than last year, not as good as last year? Whatever it is, they’ll be on all of those guys.”
The Patriots tend to be very active in the hours and days immediately following the cutdown deadline. Last year, they claimed wide receivers Amara Darboh and Chad Hansen off waivers after both fell victim to roster cuts, though neither wound up playing a snap for the team.
Cutdown weekend in 2017 was even more hectic: Over a two-day span, New England traded Justin Coleman to Seattle for a late-round draft pick, shipped Jacoby Brissett to Indianapolis for Phillip Dorsett and swung trades for veterans Cassius Marsh and Johnson Bademosi.
“There’s 1,300 guys or whatever that there will be some kind of transaction with — 1,300-plus that’ll (be involved in) a transaction here in the next few days,” Belichick said. “There will be very few, if any, guys that we wouldn’t (have studied). We’ll be way over the 1,300. We’re looking at maybe 1,800.
“And then some guys are going to make (rosters) and some guys aren’t, but the guys that are there, we’ll be on. I’d be surprised if there was somebody in that group that we haven’t looked at tape on, had a preseason evaluation on and were up to speed with. That’s what the pro personnel department does.”
The Patriots will close out their preseason schedule with a home game against the New York Giants on Thursday night.
