Today, the New England Patriots have announced that they have released cornerback Phillip Adams.
Adams, 23, entered the league as a seventh round pick of the San Fransisco 49ers in 2010 after attending South Carolina State. Adams spent several stints on the Patriots roster this season after being released , but seemed to have solidified his role on the team in recent weeks.
Therefore, Adams' release comes as a surprise. He played a season high 51 snaps against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, and while he didn't play particularly well, he had been performing at a relatively decent level in weeks prior.
As the team's primary slot corner (over the past five weeks), Adams had been targeted 23 times, while allowing just 12 completions on the year (according to ProFootballFocus.com). He also intercepted a pass against the Chiefs last Monday night. In total, opposing quarterbacks had only a 53.9 quarterback rating throwing into Adams' coverage area.
So for a team that already has a depleted secondary, yeah, this move was surprising. Hopefully, this could be a surprising sign for the health of cornerback Devin McCourty, although I wouldn't read too much into that.
For those wondering if Adams could return to the Patriots at some point, while I wouldn't completely rule it out, this vague and somewhat dreary tweet from Adams would suggest that both sides are moving on from the situation:
In this imperfect world a person is expected to be perfect I understand that..lesson learned time to move on from another situation
The Patriots have yet to make a corresponding roster move.