FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The Buffalo Bills surprised some when they released 2015 sixth-round draft choice Tony Steward on Tuesday. The New England Patriots were happy to scoop Steward up.
The club officially announced the signing of Steward and long-snapper Christian Yount on Friday. While both players face longer odds for a roster spot, the signings are consistent with the team's philosophy of building depth at a time when teams can have as many as 90 players on the roster.
The 23-year-old Steward, a linebacker from Clemson, played in seven games as a rookie before being placed on season-ending injured reserve.
Yount provides depth behind incumbent Joe Cardona, who enters his second season out of Navy. It is not uncommon for the Patriots to have two snappers on the roster at this time of year.
Yount has played in 60 career NFL games, with Tampa Bay (2011) and Cleveland (2011-2014), but wasn't in the NFL last season. Current Patriots assistant to the coaching staff Michael Lombardi was Browns general manager in 2013 when Yount was the team's snapper.
As for Steward, here is more insight from ESPN.com NFL Nation Bills reporter Mike Rodak: "A sixth-round pick of the Bills last April, Steward was mainly a special-teams player once he returned from a preseason knee injury that knocked him out of the first five games of the season. He was placed on injured reserve on Dec. 10 with a back injury, just a day after learning his fiancée -- former Clemson rower Brittany Burns -- had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Burns died on Feb. 1, 2016, and Steward later spoke to People Magazine about her efforts to fund cancer research. Despite their thin linebacker depth chart, the Bills surprisingly released Steward this week. GM Doug Whaley shed little light on the circumstances, saying he respected Steward as a person and player but that the reasons for his release would be kept in house."
