On Monday, the New England Patriots made a pair of transactions: The team signed undrafted rookie punter Corey Bojorquez to compete with incumbent Ryan Allen and fill the open 90th roster spot created by waiving fellow undrafted rookie Darren Andrews. The UCLA product was let go with a non-football injury designation stemming from him suffering a season-ending ACL injury last November.
As a result, Andrews became subject to the NFL's waiver wire and any team would have been able to simply pick him up. No franchise opted to do that, though, and Andrews went through waivers unclaimed. As a result – opposed to Patriots offensive tackle Antonio Garcia, who was picked up by the New York Jets on Monday – the rookie will now revert to New England's reserve/non-football injury list.
As a result of being placed on the NFI-list, Andrews will a) not count against the Patriots' 90-man offseason roster, and b) not see 2018 counted as an accrued season. Because of the latter, he will become an exclusive rights free agent after the 2020 season. Furthermore, New England is not required to pay Andrews while he is on the reserve list. If they opt to do so, however, his salary will count against the team's cap.
Unless released off the NFI-list, Andrews will spend his entire rookie campaign on it – making him the Patriots' first player to see his season end prematurely.