Report: New England Patriots will release QB Kevin O'Connell

August 30, 11:33 PMNew England Patriots ExaminerSean Crowe

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Kevin O’Connell, we hardly knew ye.

O’Connell came into camp hoping to become this year’s Matt Cassel. He ended up becoming this year’s Matt Gutierrez.

Well, actually, Matt Gutierrez was this year’s Matt Gutierrez. But you get the point.

O’Connell has been shaky since the start of training camp, and downright bad in preseason game action. 12 for 26, 108 yards, 2 interceptions, 0 touchdowns, and a 25.8 passer rating won’t win many jobs in the NFL. Never mind on one of the better teams in the NFL.

But for a third round pick to get cut in year two, he would usually have to be so offensively awful that the team had no choice but to part ways rather than take the chance of his awfulness rubbing off on other players.

Something doesn’t add up. So I’ve come up with a few theories.

1) The Patriots really, really like Brian Hoyer and don’t think they can sneak him onto the practice squad. They’re also not 100% comfortable with a Hoyer-O’Connell backup QB situation, so they release the least promising of the two quarterbacks.

2) The Patriots have a deal worked out with some other team (Eagles) for some other veteran QB (A.J. Feeley) and needed to make room. O’Connell, meanwhile, played his way out of a roster spot this preseason.

3) This one, by the way, is my personal favorite. It was emailed to me by a reader, so I can’t take full credit. The Patriots released O’Connell to help out former GM Scott Pioli, whose Chiefs would be in prime position to claim O’Connell off waivers.

Matt Cassel left the Chiefs’ preseason game against the Seahawks with a leg injury that looked eerily similar to the one Brady suffered last season, so they once again might be in the market for a quarterback.

Belichick, always the nice guy, is just helping out an old friend by cutting the quarterback Pioli drafted last season while with New England.

Regardless of the reason, this is great news for Brian Hoyer. Unless the Patriots make a move for a veteran (A.J. Feeley), he has moved off the practice squad and into the third QB spot. Andrew Walter moves up to the number 2 spot (ugh).

As always, stay tuned…

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Questions? Comments? Insults? You can email them to Sean Crowe at scrowe@gmail.com.