FOXBORO -- The Patriots made a few moves on Wednesday afternoon before beginning their on-the-field preparations for Sunday's game in Miami.
They released corner Troy Hill and re-signed defensive lineman Ishmaa'ily Kitchen, who was with the team for a week earlier this month and inactive for New England's win over the Titans.
The Patriots announced that they had claimed Hill off of waivers from the Bengals on Dec. 26. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound rookie out of Oregon did not practice with the team before receiving his release.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick sounded optimistic about Hill's potential future in New England during a conference call earlier this week.
"Troy was a good player at Oregon," Belichick said. "We watched him in preseason. He played against Cleveland a couple of weeks ago. We just felt like he was a guy we would want to take a look at at that position. One as you know, that we haven’t had a tremendous amount of depth at all year so we claimed him. We’ll see how it goes but we’re looking forward to working with him."
In order to make room on the 53-man roster for Hill and receiver Chris Harper over the weekend, the Patriots announced that they had waived tight end Asante Cleveland and receiver Leonard Hankerson. Cleveland and Hankerson were both claimed soon thereafter by the Chargers and Bills, respectively.
Kitchen was initially signed by the Patriots after they lost defensive lineman Dominique Easley to injured reserve. The 6-foot-1, 330-pounder was a member of the Browns for three seasons (2012-14) and played 40 regular-season games for Cleveland. Kitchen played 15 defensive snaps in one game for the Lions this season, recording one quarterback hurry back in Week 6.
New England Patriots
Kitchen, who practiced with the Patriots on Wednesday, played under Patriots coaching assistant Michael Lombardi when Lombardi was Cleveland's general manager in 2013. While with the Browns, Kitchen played with defensive end Jabaal Sheard, and in college, at Kent State, Kitchen was teammates with Patriots offensive lineman Josh Kline.
With the addition of Kitchen, the Patriots have a little more depth on the interior of their defensive line. Rookie Malcom Brown, Alan Branch, Akiem Hicks and Sealver Siliga are the team's primary big-bodied interior defensive linemen. Rookie Geneo Grissom and Sheard have also seen work on the inside in certain situations this season.
The Patriots also announced on Wednesday that they have re-signed running back Joey Iosefa to the practice squad, which we reported on Tuesday.