FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — When the New England Patriots selected safety/linebacker Marte Mapu in the third round of the 2023 draft (76th overall), it was an outside-the-box pick in the sense that Mapu didn’t have a traditional position fit.
At 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, he was lighter than most linebackers former coach Bill Belichick preferred and bigger than the safeties he generally targeted. The hope was that Mapu’s movement skills and take-on ability would emerge in a “newer” role as a higher percentage of defensive snaps played in nickel personnel (five defensive backs).
Three years and three Patriots regimes later, the Mapu experiment is coming to an end, with the team informing Mapu of its plans to release him, according to league sources.
Mapu was entering the final year of his contract and scheduled to earn a base salary of $1.508 million. It’s possible another team that rated him highly coming out of Sacramento State offers a conditional late-round draft pick to trade for him, but regardless, the Patriots’ decision to move on reflects, in part, how they don’t view his salary as commensurate with his projected 2026 role.
Mapu played 12% of the defensive snaps in 2025, mostly in nickel or dime packages (six defensive backs), and totaled 13 tackles with one interception and five passes defended.
His greatest contributions came as the personal protector on the punt team — a role that could now be filled by safeties Dell Pettus or Mike Brown, among others. Mapu totaled 12 special teams tackles (third on the club) in the 2025 regular season and played 58% of the special teams snaps.
In all, Mapu played in 44 games (10 starts) in New England, totaling 89 tackles, three interceptions and a half sack. He started nine games in 2024 under head coach Jerod Mayo, who seemed to be his biggest champion.
The 2026 Patriots, with head coach Mike Vrabel entering his second season and Zak Kuhr entering his first official season as defensive coordinator, figure to now target more depth at off-the-line linebacker in the 2026 NFL draft (April 23-25; ESPN, ABC, ESPN App).
Robert Spillane and Christian Elliss return as starters, but the depth behind them has almost been wiped out with Mapu and Jahlani Tavai released, and Jack Gibbens signing with the Cardinals after not being tendered as a restricted free agent.
K.J. Britt, formerly of the Dolphins, was signed to a modest one-year contract to join Chad Muma as projected top backups. They join practice-squad players Otis Reese and Amari Gainer.