Patriots Re-Sign Matt Stankiewitch, Mike Zupancic

The New England Patriots had two open spots on their roster heading into today, and have used those spots to re-sign two players: rookie free agent center Matt Stankiewitch and long snapper Mike Zupancic. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick announced the moves at his Monday morning press conference.

Stankiewitch opened training camp on the non-football injury list and was released in favor of Tyronne Green. But with Stankiewitch now apparently healthy and with the Patriots thin on offensive line depth, the move makes sense. The 6’4”, 305 lbs Penn State product started all 25 games over the last two seasons of his collegiate career. He was considered a late draftable prospect heading into this year’s draft, and was considered one of the team’s more high-profile undrafted free agent pickups.

Zupancic returns after being released last week. The Eastern Michigan product has a long way to go if he plans on unseating incumbent starter Danny Aiken. Nonetheless, it is curious to see the Patriots bring him back considering it looked like Aiken had the competition wrapped up just a few days earlier.