{"id":858955,"date":"2026-04-07T13:16:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858955\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:16:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:16:24","slug":"patriots-reportedly-moving-on-from-linebacker-marte-mapu-98-5-the-sports-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/858955\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots reportedly moving on from linebacker Marte Mapu &#8211; 98.5 The Sports Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Vrabel&#8217;s Patriots are parting ways with one of the final remaining pieces of the Bill Belichick era.<\/p>\n<p>As reported Tuesday morning by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeReiss\/status\/2041474816029450296\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ESPN&#8217;s Mike Reiss<\/a>, the Patriots are informing linebacker Marte Mapu that they intend to release him. This could be a tactic to see if another team would be willing to swoop in for a last-minute trade, but the likelihood is that Mapu has played his final game in a Pats uniform.<\/p>\n<p>A third-round pick out of Sacramento State in the 2023 NFL Draft, Mapu was considered a curious pick at the time the Bill Belichick-led Patriots selected him. Despite his size and versatility, average athleticism and the lack of a clear position\/role made Mapu more of a projected Day 3 pick, making him a reach for Belichick at 76th overall. Mapu ended up being active for 44 games over three seasons for the Patriots, but only started 10, and had no starts in 2025 under Vrabel. He played just 12% of defensive snaps and 58% of special teams snaps in his third season.<\/p>\n<p>Mapu was due a $1.5 million base salary for 2026, non-guaranteed. They will ultimately save around the same amount on the cap, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/82368\/marte-mapu\/contract\/cap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Spotrac<\/a>. This was a no-brainer move, if Mapu was only going to be a punt protector and low on the linebacker\/safety depth chart. He&#8217;s replaceable for a fraction of the money with a new draft pick. The Patriots have only Robert Spillane signed beyond the 2026 season at linebacker, so they&#8217;ll need to draft at least one at the end of April.<\/p>\n<p>As for the 2023 draft class, cornerback Christian Gonzalez, wide receivers Kayshon Boutte and DeMario Douglas, and punter Bryce Baringer still remain on the roster. Gonzalez seems on track to eventually sign a lucrative extension, as he&#8217;s emerged as a premier cornerback. The fates of the other three remain undecided.<\/p>\n<p>For Mapu, it now feels like his fate was decided the second Belichick drafted him. He was destined to be left without a clear role in the NFL, and without a clear future. But it wouldn&#8217;t be surprising if he caught on elsewhere as a special teamer.<\/p>\n<p>Matt, a North Andover, Massachusetts native, has been with The Sports Hub since 2010. Growing up the son of Boston University All-American and Melrose High School hall-of-fame hockey player Steve Dolloff, sports was always a part of his life. After attending Northeastern University, Matt focused his love of sports on writing, extensively writing about all four major Boston teams. He also is a co-host of the Sports Hub Underground podcast and is a regular on-air contributor on the Sports Hub. Matt writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Vrabel&#8217;s Patriots are parting ways with one of the final remaining pieces of the Bill Belichick era.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,6307,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-858955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-marte-mapu","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116363617043607460","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858955","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=858955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}