They still ate 3 million on that signing. Big pill to swallow.
I don't care about Nolan Carroll per se but the situation, decision and resulting narrative are interesting.
Years ago Jerry would often hold on to players because he had spent money on them or because he had invested a draft pick to get them. In contrast Jimmy cut three 3rd round picks (2 in their rookie training camp).
In 2016 he Pats had cut OG Jonathan Cooper despite it saving them zero dollars (IIRC) and despite his injury only projected to keep him out in the early part of the season. He was only signed for that season and they didn't expect to need him by the time he returned. Cooper ended up playing 5 games for the Browns until their starter returned from injury and then Cooper was signed by the Cowboys. The following season he started 13 games for the Cowboys. Summary: The Pats cut a player that had ability and saved zero dollars because the player was just a stop-gap anyway.
No doubt Carroll was expensive for 1.5 games but we don't really know much about his actual ability other than he quit football after that season.
Game 1 vs NYG
100% of D snaps (57)
Game 2 vs DEN
32% of D snaps (25)
Summary
He was bad in 25 snaps of which he was injured for most of them.
If he was projected to be out 6 weeks, that would have him available around game 9.
They had 3 young CBs that they liked (2 rookies) Awuzie, Lewis & Brown plus a street free agent that exceeded their expectations (Benewikere). They still had Scandrick. They often had "Safety" Byron Jones move up to cover TEs and they brought in another Safety on those snaps which really meant BJ was playing CB when he was in those situations. They also had X.Woods playing Nickel CB at times (XWoods became the starting Nickel CB when Scandrick went to IR late in the sesson).
There was no point putting Nolan Carroll on IR because he was a 1 year stop gap that was never intended to be one the roster past that season.
Summary:
Carroll was signed as stop-gap insurance. His injury prevented him from giving the team insurance when they needed it; therefore they just moved on and used the roster spot on a healthy player.
