{"id":278895,"date":"2025-08-11T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T06:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/278895\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T06:56:09","slug":"patriots-lb-anfernee-jennings-on-roster-bubble-s-kyle-dugger-a-release-trade-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/278895\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots LB Anfernee Jennings On Roster Bubble; S Kyle Dugger A Release\/Trade Candidate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patriots linebacker Anfernee Jennings<\/a> started 16 games last season and enjoyed a 79% snap share, both career-high marks. However, he may not be with the team in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As ESPN\u2019s Mike Reiss<\/a> observes, Jennings was playing late in the fourth quarter of New England\u2019s first preseason game on Friday, which is not the typical milieu for an established player. In Reiss\u2019 estimation, that is reflective of Jennings\u2019 precarious spot on the roster.<\/p>\n

Now entering the second year of the three-year, $12MM contract<\/a> he signed in March 2024, Jennings has failed to make much of an impact as a pass rusher but has proven himself to be a stout defender against the run. He earned a stellar 85.9 run defense grade from Pro Football Focus in 2023, and though his grade slipped to 73.0 in 2024, he still turned in a solid showing.<\/p>\n

While former head coaches Bill Belichick and Jerod Mayo valued Jennings\u2019 contributions as an edge-setter, new HC Mike Vrabel<\/a> favors a more aggressive, penetrating style of play. Reiss says Jennings is firmly behind new acquisitions Harold Landry<\/a> and K\u2019Lavon Chaisson<\/a> on the depth chart, and the sixth-year pro is competing with younger talents like Truman Jones<\/a>, Bradyn Swinson<\/a>, and Elijah Ponder.<\/p>\n

New England would have to eat $3.35MM in dead money if it were to move on from Jennings and would realize cap savings of just under $2MM. Mike Giardi of the Boston Sports Journal<\/a> agrees with Reiss\u2019 assessment of the situation and points out that Jennings has been \u201clooking up at the depth chart\u201d since spring practices began. Giardi suggests the Pats will indeed part ways with their 2020 third-rounder at some point.<\/p>\n

Another 2020 draftee and stalwart on the Patriots\u2019 defense, Kyle Dugger<\/a>, could also be a release\/trade candidate, per Ben Volin of the Boston Globe<\/a>. While Dugger\u2019s status in that regard could be more speculation than anything else at this point, Volin does say the 29-year-old has had a quiet camp and may only be on the roster because of his fully-guaranteed 2025 salary of $9.75MM (part of the four-year, $58MM deal<\/a> he signed last April).\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, if another team is willing to absorb some money, Volin believes Dugger could be traded. But no other club produced an offer sheet after the Patriots put the transition tag on Dugger last year \u2014 though he did attract some interest<\/a> at the trade deadline \u2014 and the Lenoir-Rhyne product\u2019s frequent struggles in coverage continued in 2024. He allowed a massive 137.4 QB rating as the nearest defender, and PFF placed him near the very bottom of the league in terms of coverage grades.<\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s training camp practice, Dugger was running with the second-team, while rookie Craig Woodson<\/a> took his place on the first-team unit (via Volin<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patriots linebacker Anfernee Jennings started 16 games last season and enjoyed a 79% snap share, both career-high marks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7881,1846,7,7882,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-278895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-anfernee-jennings","9":"tag-craig-woodson","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kyle-dugger","12":"tag-new-england","13":"tag-new-england-patriots","14":"tag-newengland","15":"tag-newenglandpatriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115008830627490032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}