The Danny Etling Era in New England Has Unfortunately Come to an End
With the trade of Eric Saubert yesterday, somebody had to go from the Patriots. We got the answer of just who that somebody ended up being. The Patriots came out today and announced they would be putting QB/WR Danny Etling on waivers.
Per @FieldYates, WR/QB Danny Etling has been waived by the Patriots. Etling isn’t here at practice this morning. Etling was attempting to make the transition to a WR/special teams type role and was one of the fun stories of camp.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) August 13, 2019
Patriots waived QB/WR Danny Etling, per @FieldYates.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 13, 2019
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anybody for a few reasons.
Jarrett Stidham
With the drafting of former Auburn QB Jarrett Stidham, it was pretty clear Etling was going to be a long shot to make this team. Stidham showed the skills that Patriots personnel liked to be the potential future quarterback of the Patriots. Worst case scenario, Stidham ends up being third string behind Tom Brady and Brian Hoyer. But the point of it all is that Stidham was the beginning of the end for Danny Etling being a New England Patriot.
The QB To WR Transition
Transitioning to a new position in the NFL is very, very tough. Julian Edelman is an exception obviously. For the most part though, the transition isn’t easy. Danny Etling has speed, we all saw that last year in the preseason. So, going to wide receiver was something that could have potentially worked. Obviously, it wasn’t working well as he is gone only a week and a half into the preseason schedule. Learning routes and everything else in between for Danny Etling was a fun story to follow this training camp. In the end, Etling wasn’t good enough to be a QB or a WR for the New England Patriots.
In Conclusion
It’s not a big loss at the end of the day. Danny Etling was a nice story, but it’s not going to help the Patriots win football games this upcoming season or in the future. They are comfortable with the team they have going forward. We always will have the 86 yard bootleg touchdown run from Etling against the Giants last preseason to remember him.
Danny Etling was cut from the #Patriots, and there's a good chance his NFL career is over [he attempted to convert to WR this season because he wasn't good enough at QB] but he will forever have this 86-yard run against the #Giants from last season.pic.twitter.com/A8ePyUebc7
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 13, 2019
Good luck elsewhere, Danny Etling!
-Alan Nahigian (@BigAl2793)