As part of the New England Patriots reducing their roster to the regular season limit, the team not only relied on cutting players – it also placed some of them on reserve lists. Three were placed on non-football lists while three more reverted to season-ending injured reserve.
The latter group looks as follows (via patriots.com):
WR Julian Edelman
CB Cyrus Jones
DE Derek Rivers
All three players were projected to play considerable roles on the 2017 Patriots: Edelman was penciled in as one of the starting receivers, Jones looked to be on an upwards trajectory as a punt returner, and Rivers was playing with the first team defense during practice. However, all three suffered ACL injuries over the course of the last three weeks.
Per NFL rules, players put on injured reserve today will not be eligible to be activated off the list during the regular season. Consequently, their seasons have ended today. And while this was expected, it still hurts to see the trio be out for an extended period of time.