Last week, the New England Patriots announced that they have signed their entire final 2017 practice squad to future contracts. Among the players to reportedly receive a new contract was linebacker Trevor Reilly, who joined the Patriots in October and has spent his season moving between the practice squad and the team's active roster. It looks like his 2018 season will look a bit different, though.
According to the NFL's transaction wire, Reilly's contract officially expired yesterday – the lone member of the Patriots' former practice squad to see his deal end. While the rest of New England's scout team was signed to future deals and the transactions list acknowledged them as such last week, Reilly was not for some yet to be determined reason – despite the team already announcing the signing.
The most plausible explanation appears to be that the team's public relations staff simply jumped the gun when it came to announcing the signings. Coincidentally enough, this happened right around the time when the Indianapolis Colts did the same on a much larger scale: The team released a statement saying that Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels would become its new head coach despite him not having signed a deal yet.
McDaniels – just like Trevor Reilly – never put his signature under the contract and the announcement made by the club turned out to be erroneous.