What releasing Chris Board means for the Patriots

The veteran special teamer is reportedly on his way out after just one season.

The New England Patriots’ first reported move of free agency week is releasing a core member of their special teams operation.

Chris Board, who was tied for the team lead in kicking game snaps a year ago, will be released at the start of the new league year on Wednesday. Board originally joined the Patriots as a free agent in 2023, but just one year into his original two-year contract is on his way out of town again.

What does the transaction mean for New England from a big-picture perspective, though? Let’s find out.

The kicking game turnover continues

Traditionally one of the steadiest units in football, the Patriots’ special teams group hit a rough patch over the last few years. As a consequence, the organization introduced wide-ranging changes when it made the switch from Bill Belichick to Jerod Mayo as head coach — including hiring Jeremy Springer as its new kicking game coordinator.

The arrival of Springer and his assistants, Tom Quinn and Coby Tippett, is not the only major change the unit has to deal with this offseason. The Patriots have now also lost three of their top five specialists in terms of snaps played.

Board was tied for first on that list with 407 (88.9%), and he will not be back next season. The same is true for retired Matthew Slater (378; 82.5%) and fellow roster cut Adrian Phillips (321; 70.1%). In fact, if we grow our scope to the top 11, we can see that only three of those players are currently under contract for the upcoming season:

Even if the unrestricted free agents on this list do return — something that is not a given — the Patriots’ kicking game units will look drastically different in 2024.

The move might hint at a change in roster construction philosophy

As a look at the list above shows, the Patriots have some high-profile free agents in the kicking game. Regardless of their statuses, the team is likely to add other pieces to the puzzle to help replace the likes of Board, Matthew Slater, Adrian Phillips, and others.

How New England will do that remains to be seen. However, it would not be a surprise if the club opted to go for more multi-dimensional players rather than pure special teamers.

While the team followed that strategy under Bill Belichick, the belief is that new head coach Jerod Mayo and director of scouting Eliot Wolf, the club’s quasi-general manager, might try to explore a different path. While there will be some core special teamers, including the aforementioned Brenden Schooler, exclusive kicking game contributors might become a rarer sight at One Patriot Place in the future.

The Patriots’ linebacker depth takes a hit, at least in theory

When Board arrived in New England last offseason, he had a total of 858 defensive snaps on his career résumé from his stints in Baltimore and Detroit. While never a true starter-level defender by any means, he was semi-regularly used in an off-ball role in both of his previous stops.

That was not the case in New England. While the presence of Ja’Whaun Bentley and Jahlani Tavai — one of the league’s better off-the-ball linebacker duos — played a part, it appeared the club never quite trusted him to fill a prominent role on defense. Or, to be more precise, any role at all: Board played just one defensive snap in 2023.

That snap came at the end of regulation in Week 16 against the Denver Broncos. Board as well as fellow core special teamer Brenden Schooler took the field to help against a potential lateral on the final play of the game.

So while removing Board does remove one linebacker, the group’s depth does not really suffer given how he was used by a similar-looking defensive coaching staff in 2023.

New England creates some cap savings

As noted above, Board had one year left on his contract. With him now on his way off the team, however, he will no longer factor into the mix — at least not as a signed player: according to salary cap expert Miguel Benzan, releasing the 28-year-old creates a dead cap hit of $937,500 versus net savings of $1.045 million.

The Patriots might be getting credit on their 2025 salary cap, however. Depending on his next landing spot and success there, New England might get back up to $440,000.

As for right now, the team has $83.12 million in salary cap space at its disposal.