Patriots make SNEAKY Signings...

The New England Patriots have made some sneaky signings ahead of week one versus the Seattle Seahawks as the 53-man roster continues to ebb and flow and change. They bring in a linebacker and they bring back an offensive lineman. We tell you about these signings, what they mean for the team and the latest details on the New England Patriots here today on Patriots Digest. Welcome everybody. I'm Chase Andrews and I hope you're having a wonderful day wherever you guys might be. Before we get going, make sure you hit that subscribe button. It's 100% free to do so and it's going to get you in the lime for all of this Patriots content, shorts, videos, live streams, everything you need and more here today and throughout the season. So let's get into it. The New England Patriots have made some signings and we start with the linebacker that they signed in Eric Hunter, the former Lion. Now, we got this news from the Detroit Times, Lady Lib was the first one to be quote-unquote on it. He has signed with the Patriots on the 53-man roster. Now, the Patriots had some open roster spots that was noted yesterday morning. Mike Rabel had said that they had signed guys to fill those slots. Now, we know who those guys are. Eric Hunter is going to be the first one. A really great story, might I add, for Eric Hunter. Entire college career was spent at Morgan State and he was signed as a UDFA with the Detroit Lions in May. In August, he was released by the Lions, obviously. Here in September now, he was picked up by the Patriots and put him on the active 53-man roster as a rookie. So, really incredible story and really excited to see him, you know, get dressed up for the first game of the season. And speaking of the first game of the season, you can trade on that on Calshi, our presenting sponsor. You see, on Calshi, you're going to trade directly against other users, not the house like a traditional sports book, and you're going to buy yes or no on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. And we see right here, I'm going to trade yes on the New England Patriots taking out the defending Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks. Trading yes with $25, well, it's going to get you some chunk of change back as well. It'll win you $61.46. You ask why I said $25? Well, because if you are interested in trying out Calshi, you can use the link in the description and in the pinned comment and use code DigestNFL to get $25 added to your account instantly. So, go check them out today. Again, link in the description or the pinned comment and use code DigestNFL. For the Patriots, getting this linebacker room into a steady spot was something we knew was going to happen, especially given the comments made by Mike Vrabel on the quote-unquote lack of depth. I mean, that was such a huge thing that he continuously harped on and obviously made headlines when he said that originally. So, now they're going to be able to add in some extra guys here on this linebacker room, if I can get that depth chart up. There it is. Elijah Ponder, Christian Ellis, Robert Spillane, Dreamont Jones are going to be your starters from the outside linebackers to the inside linebackers. Eric Hunter tends to be more of an off-ball linebacker with the way that he played in Morgan State. So, we have him right now behind Robert Spillane and Amadi Obadiahzor. So, what can we expect from Hunter? Because obviously, it's a guy who was a quote-unquote UDFA with the Lions. Obviously, never even really made the roster in some way and now the Patriots decide to assign him. Well, there's a lot that goes into picking and choosing players and especially putting a guy that was cut from a different team onto your active 53-man roster. So, he's 6'2", 225 pounds and had nearly 300 tackles in 45 games, which is second all-time in Morgan State history. And like I said, more of an off-ball type guy. You look at his defensive statistics in a college where he played at Morgan State and really, really solid. 2024, only played in two games due to some injuries, but he did play in 45 games over a really, really solid five-year collegiate career. Over 100-plus or 180-plus solo tackles. Ultimately, you know, nearly at 300 total tackles. Did have ten and a half sacks, three interceptions, and 12 passes defended, not to mention seven forced fumbles and a fumble recovery to go alongside it. So, the statistics, even though they are at Morgan State, they back up the siding of Eric Hunter. And again, we just know that with the way this team was looking, the depth, the projected 53-man roster was never going to be the final product. There was going to be ebbs and flows. There was going to be changes. And ultimately, we see those changes just a couple of days after the 53-man roster actually gets fully into place. And I'm excited to have Eric Hunter along for this team. Now, he was just one of the signings. The other signing that was made was bringing back Ben Brown to the active roster. He was actually cut after the 53-man roster in a kind of weird way, but he is back on the roster. I'm very happy to have him back, especially on the offensive line. It was, I'm not going to say a concern, but definitely wanted to have him as the backup center behind Jared Wilson. Funnily enough, he made the initial 53-man roster, then was cut, then got back. So, whole detail with that. But either way, he is on the roster. He is on our 53-man and projects to be the backup guy to Jared Wilson, which is very nice to have. Not to discredit Jared Wilson by any stretch, but did have some injury issues last year and, of course, is switching back to what is his natural position of center. Looks solid in the time we got to see him through training camp and very miniscule time of preseason, but really do think that he is going to be in a much better position to succeed than what he was last year. I do think that knowing what you have in Ben Brown is a good thing and being able to understand that you wanted to bring him back is obviously solid as well. So, I think that was a very smart decision and I'm very much in a good way. Now, we know the lack of depth, again, was such a huge thing and that's, I believe, why they made these signings and I think Peter Collins hit it on the head that he wasn't shy about the lack of depth since the cut down to England has acted accordingly. Reshuffling some guys on the bottom of the roster. The initial 43 was never going to be the final product. Now, are the Patriots done? Who's to say? I mean, there's other guys that could go out there and get there's people that they could sign. I think they're in a pretty good spot in a lot of places. I definitely think there's some additions that my group would like to see depth wise. I think linebacker as much as they've added there, they still wouldn't be mad about adding an outside linebacker in some way. So, we'll wait and see what ends up transpiring over the next week now because when we're talking a week from literally probably when you're watching this video, we're going to be live here on Patriots Digest with the Super Bowl rematch between the Seahawks and the Patriots to open up the 2026 NFL season. So, I'm really excited. I think it's very nice to see that Patriots continue to get stuff done. Also, some other small notes in terms of the practice squad. KJ Britt, Jalen Hunt, Jake Cubas, and Jose Ramirez, not the baseball. Jose Ramirez, the outside linebacker. Jose Ramirez is signed to the New England Patriots practice squad. Glad to see KJ Britt back there. Also with Eric Hunter, never got to bring this up, but he did play in preseason this year with the Detroit Lions. Did play in all three games. Had six tackles on solo. So, pretty solid with that. Also had a forced fumble. I mean, there's some prowess with this guy for sure. So, I'm sitting thinking it's a good time to have him on the roster. But, definitely something you continue to follow. This is the Patriots press release when they signed Hunter. He was originally signed by the Lions as a bravery agent on May 12, 2026 out of Morgan State. Six foot two, 225, was released by Detroit August 30th. He finished second in school history with 298 total tackles in 45 games. Elliott Wolfe continues to try and focus on this roster while also focusing on Christian Gonzalez. Probably have a video tomorrow about the whole details that have gone on with Gonzalez. If you haven't checked out our short, you can go check us out. Check out that to see the latest. There seems to be a conflicting report every single day about what actually is going on in the Christian Gonzalez, I'll call it saga at this point, because we've been waiting for a new contract. Hasn't happened. Now, there's people kind of showing their frustration with the Patriots saying, if you can't lock down your guy, it's not going to be a good thing for the rest of the league. It's not great. I need Gonzo on this team. I want him locked up. I still think we can get that contract done within the next week, but please don't get this to a bad situation. That's the last thing that we need to do. We appreciate you watching, guys. We'll see you next time here on the channel. Peace out.