Roster Talk - Part 1

With the first pre-season game coming up next week against Philadelphia, there appears to be some interesting roster situations.

The Pats have five running backs on the roster: Fred Taylor, Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk and Bennjarvis Green-Ellis. They have no full-back with the departure of Heath Evans. Coach Belichick will probably rotate tight ends or players such as Russ Hochstein into the fullback slot unless one is signed. This season appears to be a make or break for Maroney who is the last year of this contract and has the label of being injury prone.

The team is carrying five tights ends: Ben Watson, David Thomas and Tyson Devree from last year as well as Chris Baker who was signed away from the Jets and Alex Smith who was acquired from Tampa Bay through a trade.

I can't see the team carrying more than three tight ends. Watson is in the last year of his contact and Thomas is still recovering from his costly penalty in last season's loss against the Colts.

It doesn't appear that the team can keep all of the players on the 53 man roster or the 45 game day one without impacting another position.