Patriots Daily: Will Grier Returns; 13 Special Teams Players Tryout

Just a few days after waiving Will Grier, the New England Patriots have brought the quarterback back to their practice squad. Grier actually took some first team reps with the offense at the beginning of last week. By the weekend he had been waived, as the Patriots wanted to add OT Conor McDermott to the 53-man roster. Is it possible, given the performances of Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe on Sunday, that Grier could actually earn a starting job just a week after his release? In the 2023 New England Patriots season, certainly anything is possible.

Meanwhile, Monday the New England Patriots brought in a group of five a tryout. Yesterday there 13 were more in.

PK Tanner Brown (Oklahoma St)
WR Kaylon Geiger (Texas Tech)
LS Dalton Godfrey (South Dakota)
PK Matthew McCrane (Kansas State)
WR Kalil Pimpleton (Central Michigan)
PK B.T. Potter (Clemson)
PK John Parker Romo (Virginia Tech)
WR Matthew Sexton (Eastern Michigan)
LS Carson Tinker (Alabama)
P Michael Turk (Oklahoma)
P Corliss Waitman (South Alabama)
PK Parker White (South Carolina)
P Ty Zentner (Kansas State)

Both wide receivers listed have experience returning punts. So in all, it appears all 13 players were brought in for special teams purposes. Based on the injury Demario Douglas suffered returning a punt on Sunday, it is possible they were auditioning for a replacement. There were also five kickers in the group. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that Patriots rookie PK Chad Ryland has had two costly misses in the Patriots last two games.

Also in today’s Patriots Daily: Bills angry at officials; the greatest defender on the planet; Carolina’s coaching job; QB turnstile; and more…

New England Patriots

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Post Game Recap: New York Giants 10, New England Patriots 7

Patriots Football Now – First Look: 2024 New England Patriots Offense

Patriots Football Now – First Look: 2024 New England Patriots Defense and Special Teams

AFC East News

The Athletic – Bills get candid about officiating; angry after overtime loss to Eagles

Dolphin Nation – Tyreek Hill thinks Dolphins are better than his Chiefs team that won the Super Bowl

New York Post – Jets must squash Aaron Rodgers return goals

NFL News

NFL.com – Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says T.J. Watt is the best defender on the planet

CBS Sports– Greg Olsen interested in coaching his former Carolina Panthers team

Yardbarker – Colts to be without Jonathan Taylor for several weeks

PFN+ – 2024 NFL Draft Previews

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Fun Fact of the Day

Through Week 11, there are 14 NFL teams that have started multiple quarterbacks in 2023. Six teams have started three different QBs: Browns, Cardinals, Giants, Jets, Raiders, and Vikings. The NFL record for most different starting quarterbacks in a season is five. It has been done five times. Three of those came during the 1987 NFL strike season (Chiefs, Falcons, Patriots). The other two teams were the 1961 Buffalo Bills and 1984 Chicago Bears.

Tweet of the Day

Today’s Tweet of the Day comes from Jrfortgang, with graph of how NFL QBs this season have done with long balls in terms of both EPA and accuracy. Notable that New England Patriots QB has above average accuracy, but the lowest EPA…

2023 QB EPA and accuracy when throwing deep.

Makes last night's CHI gameplan all the more puzzling. pic.twitter.com/ypSrGaA5XK

— Jrfortgang (@throwthedamball) November 28, 2023