Patriots release veteran edge rusher ahead of AFC Championship game

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Patriots release veteran edge rusher ahead of AFC Championship game

Mark Daniels · MassLive

Fri, Jan 23, 2026 ·

2 min read

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FOXBOROUGH – One week after bringing in a productive veteran pass rusher, the Patriots are quickly moving on.

Last week, the team signed Darrell Taylor to their practice squad. This roster move happened after he was released from Houston as the Patriots were preparing to face the Texans in the AFC divisional round

Taylor told MassLive that he thought he could provide the Patriots with intel to help them in their playoff matchup. Whether that helped the team in their win is unknown, but on Friday, Mike Vrabel announced the team had released Taylor when asked how the veteran was acclimating to the team.

“We released Darrell Taylor ,” Vrabel said. “We’ll put that out here at four o’clock, so not very well.”

Taylor’s time in New England lasted a week. The 28-year-old made a career-high 9.5 sacks in 2022 with Seattle . This offseason, the Patriots showed interest in Taylor in free agency, but the edge rusher opted to sign with Houston. He spent most of this season on the Texans’ injured reserve, playing in four games.

Houston released Taylor before their wild-card game. He signed with the Patriots as they were preparing to face off with his old team.

“Yeah, I feel like there’s stuff you can help with. You’ve been around. I’ve been there for freaking 10 months,” Taylor told MassLive . “I would say, yeah, there’s stuff I can help them out with, but there’s only so much they let me know over there. I didn’t play like that anyway, but I made sure I paid attention. There’s definitely stuff that I can help them with, especially going against that offense. Just going against them in practice every day. So, I feel like I can offer a lot for the Patriots to help us win this game.”

Last week, Taylor said he was hoping to get elevated to the Patriots’ game-day roster to help on special teams and defense. That didn’t happen as the team elevated defensive tackle Leonard Taylor and running back D’Ernest Johnson in their win over the Texans.

The Patriots ruled Harold Landry out on Friday, but Taylor still couldn’t find a place on the game-day roster.

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