by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com
Don’t worry – no extra charge for the Replacements references.
Today’s the day most observers expect Asante Samuel to end his no-contract-out and return to the Patriots secondary, as the team begins to whittle its way down to a final roster by Saturday. In fact, the Providence Journal has reported that Samuel is already in town and will be with the team when it practices today.
Samuel will rejoin the team with no guarantees about his future, as the Patriots will reportedly not give up the option of franchising him again next spring. If so, New England has apparently survived its latest high-profile hold-out (isn’t it just semantics to call it anything else?) none the worse for wear.
The Pats beat writers are already contemplating the cutdowns this week, as both Mike Reiss and John Tomase have already taken a swing at projecting a final roster. Naturally, the wide receiver, tight end and linebacker postitions require the most cipherin’. Veterans Reche Caldwell and Tory James will be among those who hope they won’t have to Bring Their Playbook, and rookies Oscar Lua and Justin Rogers hope to add some needed youth to the Pats veteran linebacking corps.
I’m surprised at the writers’ mention of Richard Seymour possibly starting the season on the PUP list, as I’ve just assumed all along that the Pats were taking it easy with their best defensive player as he rebounds from off-season knee surgery, and that he’d be ready to go next week. If I’m not mistaken, starting the season on The List would mean the Pats would be without Seymour until late October, a prospect I never considered. The good news is that the Patriots seem to have built some real depth along the line this summer; still, that would only be small consolation for not having Seymour for 40% of the season.
The other curious thing I noticed this morning is the mention of a possible Eugene Wilson injury suffered during the Pats win over the Panthers on Friday. No indication as to the severity of the injury, but if Wilson is shelved long, Samuel will arrive just in time for another reshuffling of the Patriots secondary. Though James Sanders filled in for Wilson Friday, you’d have to think Brandon Meriweather may shift from corner to his collegiate position of safety. Which may be good news for Tory James, for example, but not such good news for the Patriots.
For other news, try patriotslinks.com for the rest of this morning’s headlines, and you may also want to check out our pal Christopher Price’s latest Metro column on the Pats, as Chris looks back at ten things we learned on Friday night.
Please report to the Comments section, and oh, yeah, bring your playbook.
Patriots Daily 
I didn’t recall that the PUP designation was so limiting. Must be why teams don’t use it as a taxi squad as it appears the Pats are doing of a little bit this year.
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There is a frightening lack of information on the net regarding the rules and regs of the PUP. How could that be? But I do recall Patrick Pass, for example, starting the season on the list last year and then not being available to the Pats until mid-to-late October. Tedy Bruschi in 05 also comes to mind. As I recall, starting on the list means they’re out six weeks at least, then the team has a certain time frame to either move them to the roster, place them on IR, or waive them altogether.
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Looks like the Price is right — Christopher Price, that is. I don’t take the subway (it hasn’t come out to the Mack Valley, yet, and I don’t work in Boston) so I rarely see Metro, but that was a nice piece — especially poing No. 6, the special teams, which I thought was a chink in the Pats’ armor last year. In the excitement of victory (yeah, I know it’s only preseason), I forgot that the Pats blocked two frikkin’ field goals! Sweet honey from the rock.
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you should add de to cipherin’ – deciphering means unscramble the mess while ciphering means scrambling the mess to make it hard to understand.
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I meant the kind of cipherin’ that Jethro Bodine used to do at his Uncle Jed’s behest, but correction noted anyway.
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The Pats should add a new condition to Geno’s contract that if he’s chasing down a Panther from behind, just let him go. We’ll take the touchdown over the injury.
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I believe the PUP has them out for 6 weeks and they must return by week 10. But if they’re on PUP to start camp and never come off during camp they can come back before week 6.
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from an old article on Curtis Martin going on the PUP
According to NFL rules, a player on the PUP list can’t be cleared to practice until after Week 6. The Jets now have three weeks to decide whether to allow Martin to start practicing. Once he’s cleared to practice, the team would have three weeks from that date to either place him on the active roster or put him on injured reserve and end his season.
so you have weeks 7,8,9 to determine if he can practice (or let him play), if you wait long enough you can stretch the decision out to week 12
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Thanks Snoop. So if I recall correctly, Seymour was on the PUP to start camp, which I didn’t think about this morning. It sounds then they wouldn’t necessarily lose Richard for six weeks by leaving him on the PUP temporarily.
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Gotta love Ellis Hobbs (via reiss_pieces):
Have you spoken to Asante?
“Yeah, I saw him this morning. I said, ‘What’s up?’ to him. Nothing different man. We’re not going to throw a parade or anything like that. It’s business. The business side is over with obviously. Now it’s time to get down to the real business on the field and that’s trying to win ball games.”
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Ellis Jr. fears no microphone or notebook.
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http://tinyurl.com/2x5upg
That’s a link to nflplayers.com that explains the PUP list from last year’s training camp.
“Players can only be put on the PUP list before the first practice of training camp. If they are not removed from it before the final roster cutdown to 53 players on Sept. 2, they must stay on it for the first six weeks of the season. At any time during Weeks 7-10, they can be activated or work out with the team.
After the first 10 weeks of the season, they must be activated, waived or placed on injured reserve, requiring them to miss the rest of the season.
Any of the PUP players can be taken off the list in training camp once they’re ready to practice.”
Pretty much what Snoop Puppy PUP had, but includes the rule that the PUP can be used only at the start of camp.
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