What to expect from roster cuts today

This is an aggregation of seven roster predictions by major members of the New England Patriots media.

Collected here are the final 53 by ESPNBoston's Mike Reiss, Mike Rodak and Field Yates. The Boston Herald's Karen Guregian, Patriots Football Weekly's Andy Hart, Boston.com's Greg Bedard and WEEI's Christopher Price.

What's the reason for this? Every year there is a surprise cut. While some may point to Jabar Gaffney's release and say that's all the surprises we're getting, with around 20 players set to be cut today there's a good chance one will be someone that nobody was expecting. To really put a definition on that "surprise cut" I've collected all of these roster predictions from the biggest experts in the media.

This will be valuable to see not only before the roster cuts are reported, but also after. It's probably unrealistic to think that every single player all of these media members expect to make the roster, will.

Points of disagreement highlighted in bold.



Of course we know players like Tom Brady, Chandler Jones, Brandon Lloyd, etc. are not going to be cut. Largely all of the players with a 100% below will make the 53 man roster. However, there are a couple of curious players who everyone polled here believes will make the team.

Two that stand out are Jake Bequette and Marquice Cole. Most of the analysis on Bequette has been that he has been inconsistent and has been outplayed by undrafted rookie free agent Justin Francis. While it would be odd for the Patriots to cut a third round draft pick in Bequette, Francis is given only a 57% chance to make this roster according to the aggregate predictions pulled.

Also, Marquice Cole is another curious player with 100%, though I also understand why he has the unanimous lock on the roster. He played well against the Buccaneers and was even praised by Bill Belichick. Still, odd to see that absolutely no one expects the undrafted five year veteran to be cut.

Daniel Fells is another player that has a 100% on the list above, despite the fact that he has not played a single snap in the preseason. While we all know that Shiancoe is injured and Fells has participated in practice, is there not the possibility that someone like Alex Silvestro might surprise and take take the third tight end spot? A very remote possibility it seems.

The Patriots must trim down to their 53 man roster by 9pm today.