Patriots Safety Group Takes A Hit In Recent Injury Report
Prior to New England’s highly-anticipated matchup against the Ravens, the Patriots officially announced the injury status of eight players.
Week 3 is officially here! On Sunday at 1 P.M. EST, the Patriots and their Mac Jones-led offense will go head-to-head against the most athletic QB the NFL has ever seen: Lamar Jackson.
Game-plans, matchups, and predictions can be talked about later; but for now, we have to know what players will be available for the game.
Patriots vs. Ravens: The Good News And The Bad News
Fortunately for Patriots fans, the recent report included no names in the ’Out’ column. This means that no single player on the 53-man or Practice Squad will definitively be out for Sunday’s game.
The bad twist to this narrative is that the list included eight Patriot names (Josh Bledsoe, Cody Davis, Kyle Dugger, Davon Godchaux, Raekwon McMillan, Jakobi Meyers, Jalen Mills, and Adrian Phillips) in the ’Questionable’ column; six of which (Kyle Dugger, Davon Godchaux, Raekwon McMillan, Jakobi Meyers, Jalen Mills, and Adrian Phillips) are starters or players who get quality minutes on the field.
If just half of the ‘crucial six’ on the injury report are downgraded to out for the game, this could present significant challenges and needed changes to game plan.
If I had to pick one player in the ’crucial six’ as the most important, I would select Kyle Dugger. Dugger has been a defensive force at the safety position up to this point, and losing him against Baltimore would be a substantial loss. A name also included on the report is safety Adrian Phillips. This means that, in the worst scenario possible, the Patriots will be losing two starting safeties.
In the unfortunate case of Kyle Dugger and Adrian Phillips being ruled ’Out’ for the game, the Patriots would either have to alter their game-plan to a less safety-heavy approach on defense, or they would have to call up a few of the backup safety’s on the depth chart to sub in for Dugger.
The latter seems the easiest to execute; but since Joshuah Bledsoe, a backup safety for the Patriots, is included in the ’Questionable’ column, this could impose unwanted challenges assuming he doesn’t play.
As for the offensive side, there is only one name included on the list: Jakobi Meyers. Meyers has been a keystone of the receiving core and the offense as whole. Losing him would take a main target off of Mac’s radar, but it would be a much more manageable loss than Dugger and Phillips.
Since the status of these eight players is bound to change in the coming days, make sure to stay updated with the latest Patriots news by following me @patsdowney on Twitter.
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