{"id":218018,"date":"2025-02-19T19:16:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T00:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=218018"},"modified":"2025-02-19T19:16:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T00:16:31","slug":"patriots-officially-release-4-0-sack-linebacker-sione-takitaki-5-team-fits-that-make-most-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/19\/patriots-officially-release-4-0-sack-linebacker-sione-takitaki-5-team-fits-that-make-most-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Officially Release 4.0 Sack Linebacker &#8211; 5 Team Fits That Make Most Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots officially release <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/21\/the-2024-cleveland-browns-will-have-a-new-look-at-this-position\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Sione Takitaki<\/a> who now becomes a free agent next month. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/patriots-release-lb-sione-takitaki-2025-02-19\/#:~:text=February%2019%20%2D%20The%20New%20England,starts)%20and%20totaled%2021%20tackles.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to reports<\/a>, this is the first Patriots release after the 2024 campaign and to no surprise after a disastrous one, they&#8217;re releasing Takitaki. Originally selected in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft, the former BYU product came into the league as a promising keystone linebacker for the Cleveland Browns after helping them reach a wild card in 2021. However, due to injuries, he hasn&#8217;t been the same versatile player he once was but he has a strong resume that could be worth for teams to take a chance on him.<\/p>\n<p>Takitaki won&#8217;t have the most enormous market even though he&#8217;s been a key contributor alongside Anthony Walker Jr. and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. However, this release wasn&#8217;t too surprising since the new Patriots head coach will be building a new regime that fits under his leadership. Takitaki did sign an extension in 2023 but he was anything but impactful. If he still has the ball-hawking abilities he did with the Browns when Baker Mayfield was still there with Cleveland, he could have a strong revival in his career wherever he lands.<\/p>\n<h2>Patriots Officially Release 4.0 Sack Linebacker Sione Takitaki &#8211; 5 Team Fits That Make Most Sense<\/h2>\n<h3>Possible Destinations<\/h3>\n<h4>New Orleans Saints<\/h4>\n<p>Since the Saints don&#8217;t have the financial landscape for the best pass rusher, this could be their last resort. <a href=\"https:\/\/whodatdish.com\/6-saints-players-who-wont-be-back-in-2025-cam-jordan-chase-young-01jgvtap2pj7#:~:text=Chase%20Young%20won&#039;t%20be%20back%20with%20the%20Saints%20in%202025&amp;text=The%20Saints%20gave%20him%20a,belief%20is%20he%20did%20that.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Impending free agent Chase Young<\/a> probably isn&#8217;t coming back they could lose <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/11\/19\/new-orleans-saints-linebacker-demario-davis-most-underrated-player-nfl\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Demario Davis<\/a> due to salary cap issues. Takitaki isn&#8217;t the best on the market but when you have Pete Werner and Willie Gay on the same team, the Saints may carve out a decent role for him.<\/p>\n<h4>Dallas Cowboys<\/h4>\n<p>As much help as the Cowboys need on offense, they need to address the linebacker department. Last offseason, the team lost Dante Fowler Jr. and Dorance Armstrong and didn&#8217;t do much to replace them. While they focus on figuring out a price for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/22\/micah-parsons-leadership\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Micah Parsons<\/a>, they need a linebacker replacement to strengthen the depth since they are most Demarcus Lawrence in free agency. Takitaki could be a good gateway to help keep this defense competitive if he can stay healthy.<\/p>\n<h4>Los Angeles Chargers<\/h4>\n<p>Nobody loves playing a defensive game more than head coach Jim Harbaugh. However, they will embrace losing Joey Bosa and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/04\/chargers-competition-khalil-mack-free-agent-fits\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Khalil Mack<\/a> if they don&#8217;t re-sign them to new contracts. With that, they should take a chance on Takitaki and get him in the rotation.<\/p>\n<h4>Baltimore Ravens<\/h4>\n<p>The Ravens had one of the most phenomenal offenses in the league but the same can&#8217;t be said about their defense. Roquan Smith and Kyle Van Noy were the main contributors to why Baltimore had any success in that pass rush. Trenton Simpson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BTCq5SF76Zk\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">doesn&#8217;t look to get better with time<\/a> so they should sign a guy like Takitaki to increase the competition for Baltimore&#8217;s defense.<\/p>\n<h4>Washington Commanders<\/h4>\n<p>There hasn&#8217;t been any word on if <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/03\/25\/bobby-wagner-signs-contract-with-seattle-seahawks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Bobby Wagner<\/a> will return but they should be looking for help either way. The Commanders had one of the worst defenses last year despite the offense making a huge impact. Takitaki won&#8217;t increase their Super Bowl chances but it&#8217;s an opportunity to see how he could do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots made one of their first offseason moves by releasing their plagued linchpin who is now available on the market. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":218019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,10,19,18,5,28,8896],"tags":[7723,1051,7642,5718,7422,358,7429,6993,7394,7752,7638,7659,5198,8996],"class_list":["post-218018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-ravens","category-cowboys","category-chargers","category-patriots","category-saints","category-washington-commanders","tag-baltimore-ravens-news","tag-bobby-wagner","tag-chargers-featured","tag-chase-young","tag-dallas-cowboys-news","tag-khalil-mack","tag-los-angeles-chargers-news","tag-micah-parsons","tag-new-england-patriots-news","tag-new-orleans-saints-news","tag-ravens-featured","tag-saints-featured","tag-sione-takitaki","tag-washington-commanders-news"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218018"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218077,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218018\/revisions\/218077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}