On Tuesday at 4 PM, the Patriots will need to trim the roster down to 53 players, as will the rest of the NFL.

That means a ton of coffee and very little sleep is in the near future for Patriots Director of Player Personnel Matt Groh.

League cut down day at the end of camp doesn’t get the hype that the combine, draft, or opening day does, but it’s one of the most important days on the football calendar. Dreams will either be made or shattered, some guys will get released but end up being a golden ticket of sorts for a team that decides to take a chance on them, and locally, we’ll get a real sense of what the 2022 Patriots will look like in two weeks after weeks of “projections” which is really just another word for guesses.

“Yeah, there’s a lot going on. A little over 24 hours before the biggest transaction day in the NFL, so there’s a lot of information gathering,” Groh said in a press conference Monday morning. “There’s a lot of evaluating. Just a lot of communication inhouse as far as what we’re looking for, ways we can improve the team, so there’s a lot going on.”

Groh’s first big test with his new title was the draft. Right off the bat he’s had to listen to continued questions surrounding Cole Strange, while Tyquan Thornton is going to miss the first month of the season. On the bright side, it appears his picks of Marcus and Jack Jones should be hits and with the injury to Ty Montgomery, both Pierre Strong and Kevin Harris might have a shot to help out at running back.

Groh was asked for his thoughts on the draft class thus far.

“They’ve worked really hard. Those guys have gotten a lot of chances to go out there and prove themselves,” he said. “Luckily, we’ve been able to see a lot of those guys really go out there and compete. I think we’ve got a good group to work with and hope we can say that about every group that we bring in here, but they’re working hard, they’re doing a lot of the right things. One thing that’s really nice is to see how close of a group they are as a rookie class. To see them all sitting at lunch together, really growing together as a class. That just builds the team camaraderie in the locker room, so that’s been great to see.”

With so many guys seeing action in the preseason across the league, it’s tough to really know who is going to end up where until the moves actually start happening throughout Monday and then final cuts on Tuesday. Groh said it’s a bit like trying to put a draft board together, but also acknowledged a lot of people are going to waste a lot of time league-wide watching guys that simply won’t be available.

“Certainly that’s the tricky aspect of it. It’s similar to kind of trying to put your draft board together and seeing where this guy’s at around the league and what the value is there…We try and track all that stuff. I’d say it’s not as expansive as a draft board,” he said. “You don’t know who’s going to be available. I’m sure I have wasted hours and hours and hours of time watching players that are not going to be available. Just like I’m sure guys at other teams have watched hours and hours of our players that are not going to be available. That’s just the way it goes. Now, in the draft, they’re all available. You might not get a chance to take them, but here, it’s just the way it goes.

“It’s not a waste, because you’re learning about players, but you’re evaluating the player to potentially add them to your team and they’re going to remain on a team that they’re currently on.”

With some major decisions still to come, how does Groh feel about the team as currently constituted?

“They’re working hard. I know the coaches are asking a lot of them,” he said. “They’re trying to do all that they can to get better. I think they’ve gone out and competed hard, played physically in two sets of joint practices and in three games. Like you guys have touched on, we’ve talked a lot about wanting to be a tough team. To be a tough team, you’ve got to have tough players who go out there and play tough. I’ve been able to see some of that, so that’s been encouraging.”