recognition of “his commitment to giving ba

2018 Patriots roster cuts: New England trades Jordan Richards to Falcons for conditional seventh-round pick While the New England Patriots have had plenty of hits in the second round of the NFL draft over the years – Rob Gronkowski White Ja’Whaun Bentley Jersey , Matt Light, and Deion Branch are the best examples –, they also had some big-time misses. The latest to enter the club of disappointing second-round picks is safety Jordan Richards, whose tenure came to end today.After three rather underwhelming years in Foxboro Ja’Whaun Bentley Jersey 2019 , the Patriots have traded Richards to the Atlanta Falcons (first reported by the Boston Globe’s Jim McBride):According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, New England will receive a conditional seventh-round draft pick in 2020 for Richards. Entering the final year of his rookie contract on a salary cap hit of $1.18 million, the Stanford product was far from guaranteed a spot on the team even though the Patriots did not add any significant competition during the offseason.Nevertheless, it looks as if they felt the special teamer and part time strong safety was no longer worth keeping around. The move leaves New England relatively thin behind the top three safeties Devin McCourty White Jason McCourty Jerseys , Patrick Chung and Duron Harmon: Nate Ebner is primarily a special teamer, while Damarius Travis had a quiet summer. Maybe Jason McCourty will now take over Richards’ role – or an outside acquisition. Former NFL defensive end Chris Long has been honored many times for his off-field work and he received another honor on Tuesday night.Long was named this year’s recipient of the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award in recognition of “his commitment to giving back through strategic, multifaceted efforts.” The award was one of many given out in Los Angeles and portions of the ceremony will be shown on ESPN later this month.Long donated six weeks of his 2017 salary to fund scholarships in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia and the remaining 10 weeks went to educational initiatives in St. Louis Jason McCourty Jerseys 2019 , Boston and Philadelphia. He also donated a quarter of his 2018 salary to a literacy initiative and has long supported the Waterboys program that builds wells in East Africa.Those efforts were recognized by the NFL when the league named Long the Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2018.Long announced his retirement earlier this year. He played for the Rams, Patriots and Eagles and won Super Bowls with the latter two teams.