Patriots News: Three Time Super Bowl Champion Released After Six Seasons

The New England Patriots are trying to make sure that all bases are covered for next season. Unfortunately, that means parting with some players even if they have been part of the team for quite some time. The latest casualty is punter Ryan Allen. He is a three-time Super Bowl champion and spent six seasons with the Pats.

League sources tell Jim McBride of The Boston Globe of Allen's release. The 29-year-old earned the punting job for the Pats in 2013 when he beat out Zoltan Mesko. From there, he has played in all 96 regular-season and 16 playoff games for New England. He was also a key contributor for the Pats Super Bowl wins in 2014, 2016 and 2018.

But similar to how he earned the job of punter for the Patriots, his job got jeopardized in April. This was after New England acquired Jake Bailey out of Stanford. In the NFL, drafting a punter is rare although it appears the Pats saw something special in Bailey to pursue him, the CBS Boston reported.

Allen was re-signed last March to a one-year deal but apparently lost the battle to Bailey. Bailey began holding for kicker Stephen Gostkowski in practice and he was the holder for Gostkowski in Saturday’s preseason victory over the Titans.

Known to be an excellent punter in situational football, his best game was probably the one during Super Bowl LII. He punted five times for 215 yards with three downed inside 20 at the time. Averaging 45.3 yards per punt in his career, Allen is likely to be picked up by another NFL team soon.

Aside from the change of punters, the move also offers some financial reprieve for the Pats. When New England re-signed Allen for $1.5 million, only $100,000 was guaranteed. Thus the Patriots were able to create a savings of up to $780,000. Overall, New England has $12.6 million in available money, according to the Boston Sports Journal.

Allen's release also gives the Patriots an open roster spot. With injuries to several players, New England could look at players who can fill up the tight end spot. Shilique Calhoun and Derek Rivers went down with injuries last week so adding a defensive end could be sensible.