Patriots Camp — Sep 3: Baringer Kept Sunday, Shelved Monday

The punter our last episode told you to watch made the 53 on Sunday and lost it on Monday. New England placed Bryce Baringer on injured reserve on August 31, per the team's transaction log, eligible to return after four games — and Mike Vrabel, asked why not a day earlier, per the team's site: "Just to be able to do different things with the roster. So, you get eight of those designated for return spots and just wanted to see kind of where that went and how you use those throughout the course of the year." The same day the team signed punter Mitch Wishnowsky to the practice squad — seven NFL seasons, six in San Francisco and last year in Buffalo, which released him Sunday — and the team's own release noted he was "the only player of that group that was not in camp with the Patriots." So the question we left you with, whether Baringer is the punter when the games count, has half an answer: not at Seattle. Evan Lazar at the team's site called Wishnowsky "short-term insurance," and nobody has said who punts.

The rest of Monday was two claims and the price of them. New England claimed tight end Cameron Latu off Philadelphia's cuts and linebacker Darius Muasau off the Giants', per the team. Latu played a hundred and three offensive snaps for the Eagles last season with seven special-teams tackles and a blocked punt that led to a touchdown, per Evan Lazar at the team's site; Muasau played nearly 58 percent of the Giants' defensive snaps with 11 starts, mostly inside. Vrabel on Muasau: "Darius has shown the ability to play both spots inside." On Latu: "I was with Cam during my time in Cleveland, and really enjoyed getting to know him." The opportunity, he said, was to add somebody who had excelled at special teams and was looking to earn a role at tight end. The roster spots came from center Ben Brown and linebacker K.J. Britt, released Monday — and both were back by Tuesday, Brown re-signed to the 53 and Britt to the practice squad, per the team. The offensive line we told you was 10 deep, by Evan Lazar's count on Sunday, was nine for a day and is 10 again. Tuesday also added rookie linebacker Erick Hunter to the 53, a Morgan State product with 298 college tackles whom Detroit released Sunday, per the team. Vrabel counted the churn Tuesday: "It's adding 10 up to 10 new faces, and that may continue to rise." The newest of them, he said, had arrived late the night before.

What the claims were not was an edge rusher. Our last episode carried Tom Curran's read that the front office had to work the wire at edge, with Harold Landry III on the physically-unable-to-perform list for at least four games. The two claims were a tight end and an inside linebacker, and Nick Goss at NBC Sports Boston had already written earlier that Monday: "The Patriots are alarmingly thin at edge rusher." Vrabel, on Landry and safety Brenden Schooler, who is on the non-football-injury list: "We'd love to have Harold back, we'd love to have Schooler back. But those guys, I wasn't probably anticipating them being out there." Linebacker Khalil Jacobs went to injured reserve with Baringer on Monday, per Lazar.

The practice squad is New England's own cuts, plus the punter, +3 players off other teams' cuts. 12 went on Monday, per the team. On offense: running backs Hassan Haskins — released Saturday when Corey Kiner arrived by trade — and Lan Larison, receivers Kyle Dixon and Cameron Dorner, tackle Lorenz Metz and offensive lineman Jacob Rizy. On defense: defensive tackles Eric Gregory and Jeremiah Pharms Jr., linebacker Riley Wilson, cornerback Kindle Vildor, whom we listed among the released, and safety Mike Brown. Wishnowsky was the twelfth. Four more went on Tuesday, per the team: Britt, who signed in March, made the 53, was released Monday and came back Tuesday — the comparison we made with Muma held for a day; defensive tackle Jalen Hunt off Jacksonville's cuts; offensive lineman Jake Kubas off the Giants'; and linebacker Jose Ramirez off Philadelphia's, a 2023 Tampa Bay sixth-rounder who spent last year in the Canadian Football League. 16 as of Tuesday by the team's announcements. Vrabel on how it gets used: some of them "will get elevated to try to use those roles as much as we can."

Where New England's cuts went: cornerback Marcellas Dial was claimed by Miami on Monday, per NFL.com — the only New England cut whose claim anyone reported. Tackle James Hudson III was added by Tennessee after his release, not claimed, per Jim Wyatt at the Titans' site, which separates the three players Tennessee was awarded off waivers from the two it took after their releases. Edge Amari Gainer signed to Miami's practice squad Tuesday, per the Dolphins. Running back Jam Miller, displaced by the Kiner trade, appears on no practice-squad list published through Tuesday, per Goss.

Then the contract, which moved in the opposite direction. Our last episode carried Adam Schefter's line that the Patriots and Christian Gonzalez "haven't been close." On Tuesday, Gonzalez's trainer, Christian White, told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger and Mazz "I think we're getting close," per Justin Leger at NBC Sports Boston — saying New England had put a deal in place he thought "would be slightly better" than Devon Witherspoon's four-year, hundred-32-million-dollar Seattle deal, with the terms still to settle, that the earlier problem was language rather than money — "the contract language was kind of trash" — and that he wouldn't be shocked if it got done before the Seattle game. That is a trainer on the radio against a national reporter's sourcing. Both are on the record. The team named six captains Tuesday: Kevin Byard III, Hunter Henry, Marcus Jones, Drake Maye, Morgan Moses and Robert Spillane. Gonzalez is not among them, and nothing should be read into a list of six.

Vrabel on Seattle, per the team's site: "I think you have to be careful how much you do early on." Seattle has a new coordinator, he said, and some things will be different — "It's a good defense. They're very talented." And on Lumen Field: "There'll be a lot of energy there. We'll have to be ready for the environment and we'll have to be really sound in our operation."

Back in July we previewed this team as the market's strangest case — a top-six championship price next to an underdog line in its own division — and sided with the roster. What the roster did last season: 14 three, the second seed, an offense that led the league in expected points added per play, the measure of how much each snap moved the expected score, and led it throwing, with a defense eleventh. Cut day loaded both pans of the scale. This week added weight to the heavier one — a punter and a rookie linebacker to injured reserve, no edge rusher claimed — and then took a little back off, with the player's own side saying the contract that made Christian Gonzalez publicly frustrated is close. Goss's number is the one to carry: fewer than half the initial 53 were drafted by New England. The read stays complicated. Its complications now have a punter's name on them too.

Next is the Seahawks, Wednesday, September 9, at Lumen Field — six days out. What to watch: whether a Gonzalez deal is announced before Wednesday, and whether an edge rusher is on the roster by then. The Recap follows the game.

_Data via nflverse._