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The Panthers had a chance to return the favor, but passed. So did the rest of the league.

The Patriots announced that running back Tyler Gaffney was placed on injured reserve, meaning he cleared waivers today.

A year ago, the Panthers were hoping to stash the sixth-round running back from Stanford on IR after he suffered a knee injury, but the Patriots claimed him, and carried him on their IR for a year so they could give him a shot this year.

While it would have been fun for the Panthers to make a claim to get their draft pick back, the reality is the Patriots will have paid Gaffney $738,000 to not play for them for two years, which is more than the $96,600 in signing bonus the Panthers burned for him to not play for them.

As cute as it was, the Patriots now have a guy on their roster who will not have played in three years before he steps on the field again.