Because he is an aging player whose price tag is too high. He will be on a roster once his number comes down. If somehow the AJ Brown thing doesn’t happen I expect the Pats would bring him back.I have to ask, why do you think he's a free agent? If he's perfectly fine in the locker room with zero issues he wouldn't be a free agent weeks after the draft. For that matter the Patriots would have never gotten rid of him.