The New England Patriots claimed a pair of 2017 draft picks off waivers Sunday, bringing aboard ex-Seattle Seahawk Amara Darboh and ex-New York Jet Chad Hansen. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
On the first Sunday of September 2017, the New England Patriots found themselves poached.
An NFL-leading four players were claimed from New England that afternoon, all while the Super Bowl LI champions – sitting at the bottom of the waiver priority – were unsuccessful in their attempts to claim any non-vested 53-man roster cuts from elsewhere around the league.
Gone was wide receiver Austin Carr to the New Orleans Saints, tight end James O’Shaughnessy to the Jacksonville Jaguars, offensive tackle Conor McDermott to the Buffalo Bills and cornerback Kenny Moore to the Indianapolis Colts. Gone were any players let go that New England had their hopeful eyes on, too.
It wasn’t quite so bad a year later.
By 12 p.m. ET on Sunday, the Patriots did have another three members of the preseason fold lost to active rosters, which tied for second-most with the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans, and sat behind only New Orleans’ and Buffalo’s four. Yet it wasn’t a one-way street, even if cornerback Ryan Lewis and punter Corey Bojorquez were awarded to the Bills, and safety A.J. Moore was awarded to the Texans.
The Patriots were able to make some additions of their own this time.
To begin Week 1 of the 2018 regular season, head coach Bill Belichick and director of player personnel Nick Caserio got the green light to claim a pair of wide receivers in Amara Darboh and Chad Hansen.
Darboh, 24, and Hansen, 23, entered the league as third- and fourth-round picks back in April 2017.
Darboh, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound Michigan Wolverine, clocked the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine. He was selected No. 106 overall by the Seattle Seahawks last spring after amassing 151 receptions for 2,062 yards and 14 touchdowns while in Ann Arbor.
As for Hansen, a 6-foot-2, 202-pound California Golden Bear, the former Idaho State walk-on transfer ran the three-cone drill in 6.74 seconds while in Indianapolis. He went No. 141 overall to the New York Jets after logging 92 grabs for 1,249 yards and 11 scores in the fall of 2016 alone.
Hansen went on to catch nine passes for 94 yards over the course of 15 appearances as a rookie in East Rutherford, starting one. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
Darboh and Hansen combined for 17 receptions, 165 yards, zero touchdowns and one start as rookies. They combined for 532 snaps on offense and 193 snaps on special teams.
Just where they play their next snaps remains to be seen. Just when they see their next passes falls along the same lines, too. But Darboh and Hansen, for now, reside on a Patriots depth chart out wide that had been whittled to just four over the weekend.
And that’s if including Matthew Slater, an eight-time team captain, seven-time Pro Bowler and four-time first-team All-Pro on special teams whose lone career catch went for 46 yards back in 2011.
As for the others alongside Slater on the active roster? Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett and Cordarrelle Patterson were the last pure targets left standing in the room as Julian Edelman officially began his four-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances at 4 p.m. ET Saturday.
Hogan, Dorsett and Patterson once again have company. And that company could be well worth the flier if the ink is allowed to dry.
Both Darboh and Hansen are under contract through 2020.
The Patriots will know what they have long before then. But it is a start.
And to start 2018, New England has signed eight players to the practice squad from the preseason 90-man roster. Those eight include rookie seventh-round quarterback Danny Etling, undrafted running back Ralph Webb, wide receiver Riley McCarron, offensive linemen Cole Croston and James Ferentz, 2016 third-round defensive tackle Vincent Valentine, rookie free-agent defensive end Trent Harris and 2017 scout-team cornerback Jomal Wiltz.
It is a formidable group to slip through unclaimed, despite top 2016 draft choice Cyrus Jones signing to the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad and defensive end Eric Lee joining the Detroit Lions’ on Sunday, as the Boston Herald’s Kevin Duffy reported.
It is a better starting point than when New England flipped the calendar to September 2017.
The waiver wire has been a little kinder.
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