Patriots release tight end Tim Wright

The New England Patriots have released tight end Tim Wright just one year after receiving him in the Logan Mankins trade with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to Mike Garafolo.

Wright looked like he had a lot of potential as a rookie with the Bucs in 2013. It took him a few games to adjust to the NFL game, but he was consistently beating safeties and linebackers in one-on-one coverage for the rest of the season, putting up 571 receiving yards and five touchdowns on 54 catches with the Bucs. That's pretty impressive for a rookie tight end, even if his blocking wasn't up to par.

But when the Buccaneers traded him to the Patriots last preseason, he turned into little more than a bit player and red-zone target, hauling in just 26 catches for 259 yards and six touchdowns. Granted, the Patriots have a fairly impressive depth chart now with Rob Gronkowski, Scott Chandler and Fred Davis. They don't really need Wright, who's more of a strict receiving tight end and not that versatile.

The fact that the Patriots got so little out of Wright does make the trade for Logan Mankins last preseason look a little better, though the main stumbling block is still giving up a fourth-round pick for a declining guard on a ridiculously expensive contract.

Most intriguingly, the Bucs can now pick up Tim Wright again. All they have to do is put in a waiver claim, and they've got some extra receiving talent at tight end -- and that's something they could use, given that their depth chart consists of Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Brandon Myers, Luke Stocker and a couple of second-year undrafted free agents.