New England Patriots Lose Former Fifth-Round Flier Cameron McGrone To Indianapolis Colts

Cameron McGrone’s time with the New England Patriots has come to an end without a down played in the regular season.

The 2021 fifth-round draft flier has agreed to depart from the practice squad for a spot on the Indianapolis Colts’ 53-man roster, as first reported Tuesday by NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero.

McGrone, 22, spent his rookie year on the non-football injury list while recovering from a torn ACL sustained as a redshirt sophomore at the University of Michigan. The linebacker saw his 21-day practice window open last November only to have it close without an activation. But signs pointed toward a role being developed.

New England’s war room did not invest additional draft picks into the linebacker room in 2022. That was the case after veteran turnover at the position. That was the case after calling the names of ten prospects at other positions.

“Excited to see Cam McGrone was able to get on the field a little bit last year, excited to see him be in an expanded role,” Patriots director of player personnel Matt Groh said during an April press conference. “He’s kind of an additional draft pick.”

McGrone had started 15 of his 19 games for the Wolverines. With sideline-to-sideline athleticism off the ball, he recorded 91 tackles, including 11 for loss, to go with four sacks and one forced fumble while in Ann Arbor.

But the two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention cleared waivers at the league’s cutdown deadline in August after recording 11 tackles during his initial healthy preseason. From there, he signed to the scout team at its formation and later earned a black jersey as a practice player of the week.

A standard elevation followed midway through December against the Arizona Cardinals. The transaction saw McGrone’s salary for Week 14 increase from $11,500 to $39,166, according to PatsCap’s Miguel Benzan. Yet what became a 27-13 win for the Patriots went without a debut.

The 6-foot-1, 236-pound McGrone was a healthy scratch 90 minutes prior to kickoff at State Farm Stadium.

“Yeah, Cam’s had a good year,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said afterward of the gameday decision. “He missed a little bit of time at the beginning of the year and then had a good stretch there. Then missed a few practices about a month ago or so somewhere in there. Then kind of started to reclimb from there. He’s definitely on a positive track. We weren’t sure how it was going to go there, and we wanted to protect ourselves on that against Arizona, but he’s done a good job for us. If he can continue to stay out there and work hard and improve, then maybe he’ll get an opportunity here before we’re done.”

A former five-star recruit out of Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis, McGrone will now get an opportunity back home instead of signing a reserve-futures contract with the organization that selected him at No. 177 overall. Under league rules, he must remain on the active roster of the 4-9-1 Colts for the final three weeks of the regular season.

Following Sunday’s last-second loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium, the 7-7 Patriots close out the schedule against the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills.