New England made news this afternoon as they released three players: defensive end Jonathan Fanene, offensive lineman Kyle Hill and former UMass-Amherst kicker Chris Koepplin. Fanene is the surprising choice out of that group since the Pats signed him to a three-year, $9.85 million contract last offseason with a $3.85 million signing bonus.
Due to a knee injury, Fanene hadn't played in either preseason game so far with the Patriots and I didn't get down to any practices (he missed the last 13 sessions) so I can't say anything about his short time in Foxboro. When he was brought in, he seemed like a promising player but as Bill Belichick said today on a conference call, "it just didn't work out. Don't really think I have much more to add than that, it just didn't work out."
So yeah, what else is there to say? As for Hill and Koepplin, they had zero chance to make the 53-man roster so losing them means absolutely nothing.
New England traveled to Tampa Bay today and they'll practice with the Buccaneers tomorrow and Thursday before a preseason game on Friday night. There will be a million more roster moves in the next few weeks as the Patriots cut their roster down to 53 players and figure out who is on the practice squad ahead of their season opener Sunday, September 9 at Tennessee.
UPDATE 8/22: Hix cleared waivers so the Patriots put him on IR. They currently have 85 players on the roster after those moves and they'll need to get to 75 by Monday at 4 p.m.
Also, offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer and tight end Daniel Fells were activated off the PUP list so they experienced their first practice today (against the Bucs).
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