Jason King has found his way back to the kingdom.
The offensive lineman re-signed with the Patriots on Friday, just days after the team originally released the 24-year old. King now fills up New England’s 90-man roster which was put at 89 following the release of undrafted rookie wide receiver Chris Lacy.
King originally found his way to Foxboro signing as an undrafted free agent out of Purdue in 2017. Prior to his release last week, he inked a future contract with the club back in February for the 2018 season showing that the team did seem to like his prospects. Bringing him back in the fold only solidifies that train of thought.
This isn’t the first time that New England jockeyed King around on their roster as they released him prior to the start of the regular season last year after going through training camp with the team. He was then signed on to the Patriots’ practice squad. After being released from that practice squad, King signed on with the Raven’s practice unit in later October. Just a few weeks later New England came calling again signing him to their active 53-man roster before ultimately re-joining the practice squad.
The Purdue product was a former three star 247Sports recruit coming out of high school and saw offers from Colorado, Kansas and Louisiana Tech come in before ultimately signing on with the Boilermakers.
Despite his return to New England, King does have an uphill battle to face to ultimately make it on to their opening 53-man roster. The Pats offensive line features Joe Thuney, who has started every game for the past two seasons as New England’s left guard and Shaq Mason has been a regular at right guard. Along with those two starters the team has Isaiah Wynn, Ted Karras, Cole Croston, Matt Tobin and possibly more lineman that could kick inside and play at one of the guard spots if need be.
With Lacy, meanwhile, he also was facing a pretty tough task of making the opening roster as the Patriots are pretty flush with wide out. As things stand right now New England boasts Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan, Matthew Slater, Jordan Matthews, Cordarrelle Patterson, Malcolm Mitchell, Kenny Britt and Phillip Dorsett on their roster. That’s also not including their first and second year players in Cody Hollister Riley McCarron and 2018 sixth round pick Braxton Berrios.
Lacy was signed by the Patriots after going undrafted in the 2018 NFL Draft. Over his four years at Oklahoma State, the 6-foot-3 receiver was able to haul in 63 catches for 920 yards and five touchdowns.
Now it seems like the wide out will at least have a chance to hitch on to another clubs training camp roster with a chance to make their team.
Source: 247sports.com
