The New England Patriots entered the final weekend before training camp by parting ways with one of their players. Defensive tackle Travis Shaw was waived by the team on Friday.
Shaw, 22, originally joined the club after a successful tryout at rookie minicamp in May. Let’s assess what his departure means for the club from a big-picture perspective.
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Loss of size
At 6-foot-5 and 335 pounds, Shaw was both the tallest and the heaviest defender on the Patriots’ roster at the time of his release. His profile plus his college career at North Carolina and Texas suggested that he might compete for the nose tackle job in training camp — one that has been left unoccupied ever since Khyiris Tonga left the club in March to join the Chiefs as an unrestricted free agent.
Shaw was a long-shot to earn a roster spot due to his UDFA status and lack of college production, but his physical profile nonetheless made him an intriguing player in that competition. The next defensive tackle down the line to offer similar attributes is 6-foot-3, 319-pound Eric Gregory.
8 DTs remaining
Shaw might have been the bottom layer of the Patriots’ defensive tackle depth chart, but he nonetheless provided another body to be used in practice. Alas, it was not meant to be, and New England is now down to the following eight players at the position:
Out of those eight, three players can be considered locks to make the roster this year. Milton Williams and Christian Barmore are the undisputed starters and one of the top interior duos in the NFL, while Cory Durden was a part-time DT3 in 2025 and seems ready to take on a more prominent role in his second season in the Patriots’ system.
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No salary cap impact
The Patriots signed Shaw to a standard three-year UDFA contract following his rookie minicamp workout in May, but they did not add any guarantees to the pact. As a consequence, he headed toward training camp with a $885,000 salary cap hit that consisted entirely of his non-guaranteed base salary.
This lack of guarantees in combination with the NFL’s Top 51 rule meant that Shaw had a net impact of $0 on the Patriots’ cap before his release. This means that waiving him does not change the club’s cap room whatsoever. According to Miguel Benzan, it still stands at $34.2 million with camp on the horizon.
First shoe to drop
Shaw being let go leaves the Patriots roster at 90 player, including roster-exempt international player Lorenz Metz. This means that the club has an open spot to fill a week before the start of training camp.
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The big question is: how? If we take head coach Mike Vrabel by his word, a tight end might be on the menu for his team.
“I think just from a numbers standpoint in camp, I think that’s somewhere we’ll probably have to evaluate the numbers,” Vrabel said at last month’s mandatory minicamp. “There’s 90 guys, 91 guys on every team. So, we’ll just have to take a look at that, but I would say that’s probably somewhere where we would have to address.”
At the moment, the Patriots’ tight end group stands at five players deep. Besides team captain Hunter Henry, it also features Jack Westover, C.J. Dippre and rookies Eli Raridon and Tanner Arkin.
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