New England is entering the final open Sunday of 2020 without a kicker.
The Patriots released veteran Nick Folk and rookie Justin Rohrwasser on Saturday, the team announced along with the rest of its 24 releases.
NFL teams had until 4 p.m. ET to trim their rosters down to the maximum of 53 players.
New England spent a fifth-round pick on Rohrwasser in April in the first step out of the Stephen Gostkowski era into the future, but the kicker appears to have failed to impress the coaching staff enough to avoid The Turk. The Patriots brought in Folk to compete with Rohrwasser, and neither performed well enough to keep a roster spot on final cutdown day.
This might not be the end for either kicker, though. With teams actively scanning the free-agent wire for pickups Saturday and Sunday, the Patriots might have simply deemed another player or two more valuable to keep under team control on their active roster than either of the kickers.
One of them very well could be back with the team Sunday, and New England will undoubtedly have a kicker for Week 1.
For now, though, it is a bit comical to see one of the league's model franchises submitting a 53-man roster without a single kicker on it. Maybe Julian Edelman can kick for the time being.
