FOXBORO, Mass. — The fourth and final preseason game is a chore to watch, but it’s also a necessary evil.
Thursday night’s preseason game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants will serve as one last opportunity for bottom-of-the-roster players to make their mark and get their film out to 31 other NFL teams. It’s not always pretty to watch, but it serves a purpose.
Back in 2017, Jacoby Brissett went 28-of-39 for 341 yards with four touchdowns and one interception in the Patriots’ final preseason game. After the Indianapolis Colts traded for Brissett days later, they called it “perhaps one of the greatest preseason performances by a quarterback in NFL history … ”
Last preseason, Danny Etling showed enough on an 86-yard touchdown run that the Patriots unsuccessfully tried to move him to wide receiver this summer.
So, that final game isn’t completely meaningless. The Patriots have three more days to prepare for the Giants, then it’s on to the regular season.
“Hopefully, we can get a lot of things done in terms of moving forward, improving our team and taking a final look at the competition on the roster and making some decisions at the end of the week and then moving on,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said Monday.
It sounds like the Patriots’ 53-man roster isn’t set in stone quite yet.
“Depends on what happens Thursday night,” Belichick said. “I don’t know. Yeah, look, there’s a lot of moving parts at this time of year, so I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows. There are other factors externally that could affect us, as well. We don’t know what those are. Again, we’ll just see how it goes and try to do the best we can to try to put together the most competitive team we can this year. And I don’t know exactly how that’s going to work out.”
Those external factors could be an injury or a surprising release or trade before the Aug. 31 cutdown date.
Belichick was asked directly if Brian Hoyer will be the Patriots’ backup quarterback this season. The veteran QB is being pushed by rookie signal-caller Jarrett Stidham this summer.
“There’s competition everywhere across the board,” Belichick said.
Some players seemingly on the Patriots’ roster bubble, like tight end Matt LaCosse and outside linebackers Shilique Calhoun and Derek Rivers, have missed the last few weeks of practice with injuries. Belichick said the Patriots will simply “do the best we can” to evaluate them against their competition.
It won’t be easy to trim this year’s roster down from 90 to 53 players. It’s one of the deepest, most competitive rosters the Patriots have fielded in recent memory.
