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Patriots Cut Ties With Disappointing Former First Round Pick Per

Bonisiwe Shabane
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patriots cut ties with disappointing former first round pick per

The New England Patriots have shocked the National Football League with one of their roster cuts. According to Patriots insider Mike Reiss, offensive lineman Cole Strange has been left off of the 53-man roster. "C/G Cole Strange and rookie OLB Bradyn Swinson among the players released by the Patriots today," Reiss wrote in a post on X. Strange was a former first-round pick of the Patriots in 2022. In his three-year tenure, he started 29 games for the Patriots and played in 30 of them. It's a bit of a head scratching move for New England as offensive line is one area it needs help.

"Strange, 27, was drafted by New England in the first-round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Chattanooga with the 29th overall selection," the Patriots wrote in a press release officially announcing their roster... "The 6-foot-5, 310-pounder, has played in 30 games with 29 starts during his three seasons with the Patriots. He started his first 17 games at left guard before suffering an injury in December of the 2023 season. Strange began the 2024 season on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform List and was limited to just three games with two starts at center." In the 2021 NFL Draft, New England Patriots head coach and general manager Bill Belichick gambled his first round pick on a new quarterback for the franchise. Two years after the departure of Patriots legend and multiple NFL record-holder Tom Brady, Belichick used the 15th overall pick on Alabama quarterback Mac Jones.

Jones was coming off a 2020 season when he led Alabama to a national championship, topped the SEC in passing yards (4,500) completions (311) and passer efficiency rating with 203.1, and placed third in... Jones had a rather promising rookie season, with 10 wins while bringing the Patriots back into the playoffs for the first and, so far, only time in the post-Brady era. Perhaps emboldened, not realizing the irredeemable bust that Jones would become, Belichick made an even bigger roll of the dice in the 2022 draft. With the 21st pick in the first round that year, the first thing Belichick would do is trade it away. Belichick moved down in the first round, swapping the 21st pick for the 29th with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Patriots also collected the 94th and 121st overall picks in return.

The New England Patriots parted ways with one of their former first-round picks on Tuesday afternoon. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Patriots waived offensive lineman Cole Strange Tuesday. The move made him one of the team's roster cut victims ahead of the NFL's 4 p.m. ET deadline for teams to reduce active squads down to 53 players. Strange, 27, was New England's first-round pick at No. 29 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft after playing out his collegiate career at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

The Patriots' decision to draft Strange as early as they did was the subject of a viral video depicting Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay reacting to the... "Strange just went!" McVay exclaimed when he saw the pick. The New England Patriots waived the offensive lineman Strange on Tuesday, per ESPN's Adam Schefter. Strange was a first-round pick in 2022, No. 29 overall out of Chattanooga. He appeared in 30 career games for the Pats, 29 of them starts.

MORE: How Travis Kelce's engagement to Taylor Swift impacts Chiefs TE's retirement plans Injuries did limit the guard to three games in 2024, which didn't help his cause. The New England Patriots finalized their final roster cuts on Tuesday, and the team made an obvious decision on guard Cole Strange’s future. According to Doug Kyed of The Boston Herald, New England cut Strange during the final hour before the 4 p.m. ET deadline on Tuesday. “Final Patriots cuts: Jack Conley, Kobee Minor, Cole Strange, Bradyn Swinson and Jeremiah Webb,” Kyed said on X.

Strange started 29 games at guard for the Patriots during his three-year tenure with the team, but played in just three contests last season due to injury. The 27-year-old lost his starting spot at left guard to rookie third-round pick Jared Wilson in training camp, and didn’t play very well in the preseason. Strange allowed three pressures in three preseason games and posted just a 47.4 PFF grade with a 40.4 pass-blocking grade. The Patriots' offensive line struggled immensely in 2024. The team ranked 26th in sacks allowed per game (with 32nd being the worst) at 3.1, and their lines featured eleven different combinations. In 2025, fixing this issue was a major priority.

The team went out and drafted Will Campbell with the No. 4 pick, added Morgan Moses and Garrett Bradbury in free agency, and even re-signed Ben Brown, who played 667 snaps in '24. Jared Wilson and Marcus Bryant were selected later on. Given the numerous additions, some players with notoriety will be pushed out. This is inevitable, but Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald projects the Patriots to cut ties with several notable players in his latest roster projection. Kyed expects the Patriots to keep their core group of linemen together for now: Campbell, Moses, Onwenu, Bradbury, and Wilson are all roster locks.

68th pick in 2024, Caedan Wallace, also makes the team but as a backup guard: a recent position change that he seems to have a level of comfort with. Already, we stand at six. Next, Kyed reasons that Brown's play as a center last season is reason enough to keep him around as a backup. With Bradbury injured, he's been running with the first team, so that's understandable. The New England Patriots have released former starting guard Cole Strange ahead of the roster cut deadline, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero on Tuesday. Strange was the Patriots' first-round draft pick in 2022.

He started in all 17 games as a rookie, taking 984 total offensive snaps. The former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga offensive lineman followed that effort up by starting in 10 games in 2023, before going down with a serious knee injury. He returned last December and made two starts in the 2024 season. The Patriots had a wide open competition at left guard throughout training camp. However, Strange was surpassed by rookie Jared Wilson and Ben Brown on the depth chart. Even second-year offensive tackle Caedan Wallace started getting reps at guard.

A change of scenery might be good for Strange, as injuries and coaching changes hampered his time in New England. He was a polarizing draft pick, but he showed signs of promise throughout his career. He could still provide value for a team in need of offensive line help. With this release, cornerback Marcus Jones is now the only remaining player from the Patriots' 2022 NFL draft. It was only three years ago when the New England Patriots selected Cole Strange with the 29th overall pick during the 2022 NFL Draft. Now, according to Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski, the 27-year-old guard’s relationship has a chance of ending this summer.

The NFL analyst wrote an article titled “Biggest Names on 2025 NFL Roster Bubble Who Could Be Cut” on Tuesday, including Strange among the seven candidates. “Three years (after being drafted), Strange is on the roster bubble after a third-round rookie seemingly took his spot in the lineup,” Sobleski said. “Jared Wilson, who was a collegiate center, has regularly gotten reps at left guard with the Patriots’ first-team offense in training camp.” Strange started all 17 games for New England during his rookie campaign and picked up 10 more starts in 2023, before suffering a season-ending torn patellar tendon in Week 15 against the Kansas City... He missed most of the 2024 campaign due to the injury but was eventually activated off the physically unable to perform (PUP) list in December. Strange played three games last season and made two starts.

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