I understand the Meriweather cut--word is he was getting increasingly uncoachable for the Pats, and absolutely sucked at calling defensive adjustments. That said, he is extremely physically talented, and could be a very good player if you could coach him. But if Belichick and co couldn't coach him, I'm not sure who could...maybe McCarthy or Reid would have a chance? Or Ryan?
What doesn't make sense is that the Patriots already cut James Sanders, a reliable, smart, good-but-not-great, but very reliable safety that Belichick loved. They also let the up and coming Jarrad Page get signed away from under them (as a RFA). Entering the pre-season, they looked stacked at safety, with Chung, Meriweather, Sanders, and Page vying for the two starting jobs, and Sergio Brown as a proven backup. Now Page is gone, Sanders is gone, Meriweather is gone, and they're forced to start Brown or the other pre-season roster filler chopped liver they have (or sign one of the unimpressive safeties that have already been cut), and are one injury away from repeating 2004, when they had street free agents and converted, aging WR's starting in the defensive backfield in the playoffs. (Anyone remember Earthwind Moreland? I try not to).
If you knew Meriweather was even on your cut radar, why do you let his two viable replacements go...one by not matching a RFA offer, and the other by an outright cut?
In other perplexing cuts, they Patriots have cut BOTH their blocking TE's (all three if you count cutting Alge Crumpler a while back). They've been running a ton of three TE sets this preseason, with a great deal of success, and have been adding talent at RB, so it looked like they were changing to a more power offensive philosophy. They had two young blocking TE's (a 5th round pick and an URFA) vying for that third TE spot, along with Alge Crumpler. They cut Crumpler...OK, fine, they want to give the young guys a chance, and Crumpler probably only had one season left in him anyway. The URFA, Will Yeatman, has played out of his mind in the training camp, and had been getting first team reps, outplaying the 5th round pick Lee Smith (who had a decent, but not great, camp). The big question was which would get cut today.
Both got cut. Maybe they're counting on at least one of the clearing waivers and ending up on the practice squad, but that's a dangerous game to play (see Mills, Garret, or Woodhead, Danny).
