What seemed to be another quiet offseason day gone by, the Patriots made some late noise that will shake up their roster.
In a surprising move, the team decided to release versatile defensive lineman Brandon Deaderick from their roster. Deaderick, who has been with the Patriots for three seasons, was featured regularly on the team's defensive line.
The former Alabama product was used in the team's sub packages as a 4-3 DT and was a former starter in the team's 3-4 set as a DE. He started 14 total games over his three seasons in New England, and started the final five contests of 2012. The team also officially announced the release of wide receiver Andre Holmes.
The release of Deaderick was a corresponding move to the team signing offensive lineman Tyronne Green and R.J. Mattes. Green is a four year veteran who last played for the San Diego Chargers while Mattes is an undrafted free agent who played at North Carolina State.
With Deaderick now out of the equation and with Mattes and Green signed, let's press the reset button the the team's depth chart:
PATRIOTS DEPTH CHART ON OFFENSE
QB | Tom Brady | Ryan Mallett | Mike Kafka | |||
RB | Stevan Ridley | Shane Vereen | Leon Washington | Brandon Bolden | LeGarrette Blount | Akeem Shavers** |
FB | James Develin | Ben Bartholomew** | ||||
WR-Z | Danny Amendola | Julian Edelman | Donald Jones | Lavelle Hawkins | T.J. Moe** | Kenbrell Thompkins** |
WR-X | Aaron Dobson* | Josh Boyce* | Michael Jenkins | Matthew Slater | Kamar Aiken | |
TE-Y | Rob Gronkowski | Jake Ballard | Daniel Fells | Brandon Ford** | ||
TE-Flex | Aaron Hernandez | Michael Hoomanawanui | Zach Sudfield** | |||
LT | Nate Solder | Will Svitek | Elvis Fisher** | |||
LG | Logan Mankins | Nick McDonald | Tyronne Green | Chris McDonald** | ||
C | Ryan Wendell | Matt Stankiewitch** | ||||
RG | Dan Connolly | Marcus Cannon | Josh Kline** | R.J. Mattes** | ||
RT | Sebastian Vollmer | Markus Zusevics |
PATRIOTS DEPTH CHART ON DEFENSE
LDE | Rob Ninkovich | Jermaine Cunningham | Jason Vega | Marcus Benard | |
DT | Kyle Love | Armond Armstead | Joe Vellano** | Dwayne Cherington** | |
NT | Vince Wilfork | Tommy Kelly | Marcus Forston | Cory Grissom** | |
RDE | Chandler Jones | Justin Francis | Jake Bequette | Michael Buchanan* | |
WLB | Jerod Mayo | Jeff Tarpinian | Steve Beauharnais** | ||
MLB | Brandon Spikes | Dane Fletcher | Niko Koutouvides | ||
SLB | Dont'a Hightower | Jamie Collins* | Mike Rivera | ||
LCB | Aqib Talib | Logan Ryan* | Ras-I Dowling | Brandon Jones** | |
RCB | Alfonzo Dennard | Kyle Arrington | Marquice Cole | Stephon Morris** | |
FS | Devin McCourty | Steve Gregory | Duron Harmon* | ||
SS | Tavon Wilson | Adrian Wilson | Nate Ebner | Kanorris Davis** |
PATRIOTS DEPTH CHART ON SPECIAL TEAMS
K | Stephen Gostkowski | |
P | Zoltan Mesko | Ryan Allen** |
LS | Danny Aiken | Mike Zupancic** |
Player- Indicates Veteran Acquisition
Player*- Indicates Team Draft Choice
Player**- Indicates Undrafted Free agent