The New England Patriots keep fine-tuning the backend of their roster. The latest moves on Tuesday featured two running backs.
Deneric Prince, who had just joined the club two days prior, was waived with an injury designation. To take his spot on the roster, the team added undrafted rookie Shane Watts. Let’s assess how those transactions impact the team with a big-picture perspective in mind.
RB Deneric Prince: Waived
Injury bug bites again: Prince will be put on the waiver wire following his release from the Patriots, meaning that the other 31 teams will have a chance to scoop him up. That’s not expected to happen, though, which means that he will instead revert to New England’s injured reserve list.
He will become the sixth player on IR, and third member of the backfield to be ruled out for the remainder of the season:
RB Deneric Prince*
RB Lan Larison
FB Brock Lampe
OT Yasir Durant
DT Jaquelin Roy
CB Marcellas Dial Jr.
Out of those six, four players had realistic ambitions of ending up on the 53-man roster come the regular season. Brock Lampe seemed to poised to make the team as its fullback, while Lan Larison, Jaquelin Roy and Marcellas Dial Jr. were all actively involved in competitions at their respective positions as well as on special teams.
Prince, meanwhile, was a roster long-shot. Accordingly, the team might not even keep him around on its injured reserve list through the remainder of the season; unless there is optimism about his developmental outlook, getting released with an injury settlement at a later point could happen.
Minor cap impact: If Prince reverts to injured reserve, his $960,000 base salary will turn into dead cap space. However, it seems likely that not all of it will remain on the team’s books: if he has a split salary provision in his deal, which is standard practice for low-level contracts, his in-season salary and therefore cap impact would decrease to $515,000.
Of course, given that non-guaranteed nature of that sum, it would only remain relevant for cap purposes in case Prince remains on IR throughout the season. As noted above, that might not be a given.
RB Shane Watts: Signed to 90-man roster
Versatile background: Before making the jump to the NFL, Watts spent his entire five-year college career at Division-II’s Fort Hays State in Kansas. Along the way, he earned some diverse experience.
Starting out as a defensive back, he appeared in 22 games and registered 14 combined tackles over his first three seasons with the Tigers (including the 2020 season cancelled due to Covid-19). Ahead of his 2023 junior season, Watts moved to the other side of the ball and promptly became one of the most productive players in the MIAA.
A first-team all-conference selection and second-team All-American in 2024, he played 22 games at his new position and finished with 334 carries for 1,979 yards and 18 touchdowns over two years. In addition, Watts gained 606 yards on 61 catches and reeled in five more scores.
Good athleticism: Watts generated little momentum coming out of college; he first tried out at rookie minicamp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and agreed to terms with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The relative lack of interest in his services probably is not a result of his raw athleticism: the 23-year-old has some NFL-ready traits to develop, and posted an 8.09 Relative Athletic Score during the pre-draft process.
Athleticism alone does not make an NFL-level player. However, it obviously is not bad to have either when going against the best football players on the planet.
New-look depth chart: With Watts now in the fold in place of Prince, the Patriots’ running back depth chart looks slightly different. Rhamondre Stevenson, TreVeyon Henderson and Antonio Gibson remain as the undisputed top three, with Watts now joining the competition for a potential fourth spot. To earn it, he will have to prove himself first against fellow RBs Terrell Jennings and JaMycal Hasty as well as the depth options at other skill positions making their case to be kept.
Given his time of arrival and lack of pedigree, Watts is unlikely to emerge victoriously from that competition. However, he is a realistic stack-and-develop practice squad candidate.