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The New England Patriots don’t need to cut down their roster to 75 players until August 30th, but head coach Bill Belichick is a believer in giving players a chance to sign elsewhere. The team has already cut safeties Brock Vereen and Cedric Thompson, and now tight end Bear Pascoe has been released.
#Patriots appear to have parted ways with vet TE Bear Pascoe. He had a shared locker yesterday with Michael Williams. Today, no nameplate.
— Erik Scalavino (@E_Scal) August 22, 2016
The Patriots have released TE Bear Pascoe, per a league source.
— Christopher Price (@cpriceNFL) August 22, 2016
Pascoe was never going to make the roster due to the team’s absurd depth at the position, but he was well behind the rest of the players on the roster after joining the Patriots on July 27th.
The Patriots will move forward with Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett as roster locks, while AJ Derby and Clay Harbor battle it out for the third tight end role. James Develin is entrenched at fullback.
Rookies Steven Scheu and Bryce Williams are practice squad candidates, which is why the Patriots are keeping them around until final cuts.
Best of luck to Bear in his future endeavors.
Side note: how frightened were you until you realized that the only picture of Bear Pascoe in our archives is him wearing #87 from his time with the Chicago Bears?