The New England Patriots like every other NFL team is busy this holiday weekend working trying to fine tune it’s roster with slight tweaks here and there. Bill Belichick who is a master tweaker got started early on Sunday morning when he signed RG Brian Waters.
Waters, who was released by Kansas City in July, is a five-time Pro Bowl selection including last season when none other than the Patriots staff coached him in the Pro Bowl. He has also been named twice as a NFL All-Pro.
With injuries to OL Dan Connolly and OL Ryan Wendell he can step immediately. He is pretty familiar with the New England system as he played under former Patriots coordinator Charlie Weiss last season with the Chiefs.
The 34-year old Waters played 11 seasons in Kansas City after being undrafted in 2000 out of North Texas. In 2009 he was the recipient of the “Walter Payton Man of the Year Award” for contributions on and off the field.
The Patriots also announced that they claimed LS Danny Aiken off of waivers from the Buffalo Bills. NFLDraftScout.com rated Aiken, who is a rookie out of Virginia, as the Number 1 long snapper available in this year’s draft. He was the only long snapper invited to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in February.
He signed with the Bills after the lockout ended in July.
In order to make room on the 53-man roster the Patriots released OL Steve Maneri and LS James Dearth. Dearth was just signed as a free agent about a week ago to replace Matt Katula, while Maneri spent the entire camp with the team in Foxboro.
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