The Patriots announced the signings of 16 undrafted free agents before the start of rookie minicamp Friday.
The New England Patriots were quite busy on the third day of the NFL Draft. Besides making three trades and selecting eight players, they also reached agreements with multiple undrafted free agents.
On Friday, the Patriots made these signings official. A total of 16 UDFAs were added to the team’s active roster just ahead of their 2025 rookie minicamp.
New QB3
The Patriots entered last month’s draft with only two quarterbacks under contract, and in hopes of adding more depth behind starter Drake Maye and veteran backup Joshua Dobbs. That goal was not achieved during the draft itself, though, but rather afterwards: Ben Wooldridge was added as a third quarterback in free agency.
Playing 29 games over the course of his college career at Fresno State and Louisiana and completing 60.1 percent of his passes for 4,760 yards, 38 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, the 6-foot-2, 214-pounder is going to replace Joe Milton as the Patriots’ QB3. Milton was traded to the Dallas Cowboys ahead of the draft.
Fullback is back
Josh McDaniels has always had a spot for the fullback position in his offense, but the Patriots had moved away from it after his departure to the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022. After two fullback-less seasons, however, the position is now back on the New England roster: NIU’s Brock Lampe was signed on Friday.
Lampe is the only fullback currently under contract, which seemingly gives him a clear path toward a spot on the team — either via the 53-man roster or the practice squad. That said, he will need to convince McDaniels and the rest of the coaching staff that he is indeed worthy of being kept around over depth options elsewhere.
For now, however, the fullback is officially back.
Improved depth
The Patriots had holes all over their roster entering the draft, and they did an admirable job filling plenty of them. Some still remained, however, with positions such as tight end, defensive edge and off-ball linebacker all lacking depth.
There is only so much undrafted free agents can do to address these shortcomings. Still, New England has at least brought some players in to potentially help at all three of those spots (and others).
At tight end, Alabama’s C.J. Dippre and Ohio State’s Gee Scott Jr. will provide an extra layer of depth behind starters Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper; on the edge, Cal Poly’s Elijah Ponder will try to carve out a role; at linebacker, Cam Riley out of Florida State is another player to compete for practice reps and a spot on the team.
Given the questions above them on the depth chart, the four of them should get ample opportunities to prove themselves.
Players to watch
Besides the UDFAs already mentioned above, we will have our eyes on two others this spring and summer. The first is Efton Chism out of Eastern Washington, who seemingly fits the mold of a Josh McDaniels slot receiver and who was named FCS first-team All-American in 2024. The other is running back Lan Larison, who left college as UC Davis’ all-time leader in career all-purpose yards.
Chism’s path to a roster spots appears to be more challenging given the sheer number of players at the wide receiver position relative to running back. However, both he and Larison will get their fair share of chances to show they belong.
Local ties
The Patriots picked up a pair of local talents via their undrafted rookie signings. Offensive tackle Cole Birdow, who previously participated in New England’s local pro day, started out as a defensive lineman at Old Dominion before finishing his career on the other side of teh line of scrimmage at Merrimack.
Jack Conley, meanwhile, tied a Boston College all-time record for most games played and most consecutive games played. The 2024 All-ACC honorable mentioned appeared in 60 games during his college career.
Open roster spot remaining
The Patriots entered Friday with 73 players on their roster, giving them 17 open spots to fill. They used only 16 of them, with one seemingly still open for competition.
Who will earn that final spot remains to be seen. New England has 14 players in town for tryouts, and one of them earning a contract could very well happen. One rookie to keep an eye on is Virginia Tech defensive tackle Wilfried Pene, who was actually announced as a Patriots UDFA signing by his school but apparently has yet to put pen to paper.