Patriots Super Bowl Hero and Failed Wide Receiver Listed Possible Surprise Cuts

The New England Patriots look a lot different now and head coach Bill Belichick will sure make even more changes after training camp. Team owner Robert Kraft wasn’t happy with the fact that his team didn’t make the Super Bowl in the last few seasons. The Patriots didn’t have too much money to work with this spring, but Belichick was able to pull out a few moves. According to experts, former Super Bowl champion Malcolm Butler and Patriots wide receiver Nelson Agholor may end up on the list of cuts after training camp.

Andy Hart of WEEI made some predictions. He believes that Butler and Agholor will leave the team sooner than expected. Butler joined the Patriots after the infamous benching in the Super Bowl. Will Belichick even consider cutting him? He doesn’t have much depth at cornerback.

“The veteran cornerback was out of football a year ago,” Hart explained. “Now, he’s back and penciled in as a starting cornerback where his unique career began in New England. Butler appears to be in very good shape. He looked plenty competitive in the spring. But he’s still a 32-year-old cornerback who was retired a year ago. That leaves enough uncertainty to put the former Super Bowl hero on the list. Butler would leave $750,000 in dead cap money if cut according to Spotrac.”

Patriots veteran wide receiver to join Butler on the list of cuts

The Patriots spent a lot of money to get Agholor. He was a top target, but didn’t meet expectations. Although the wideout showed some improvement in spring OTAs, Belichick may cut him in the next few weeks.

“Financially, cutting Agholor is really tough to swallow as it would leave a $10 million dead cap hit for one of last year’s big-money free agent signings,” Hart wrote. “With $9 million of that money salary, New England would probably love to try to work out some sort of a trade to ease the burden, but that may be difficult. Agholor was a big time disappointment in 2021. There is hope that he might move into more of a slot role in 2022 and that could increase his production. Still, it’s not hard to think the Patriots receiver depth chart could fill out with DeVante Parker, Jakobi Meyers, Kendrick Bourne, Tyquan Thornton and maybe Nixon, leaving Agholor as an expensive man without much of a role. The finances probably keep the veteran in the mix, though.”