For the New England Patriots, this season has not exactly gone according to plan – having started their so-far dismal season 2-7, with their sole wins coming only against the New York Jets and shocking upset to beat the Buffalo Bills.
And now, things have a potential to worsen further, (having already gotten embarrassing for some ) as Ian Rapaport reports that there are three further starters that will not play in Sunday’s early morning game in Germany against the Indianapolis Colts:
In line with the past couple of years, the New England Patriots have struggled mightily on offense whilst their defense keeps them (somewhat) competitive. Quarterback, Mac Jones, has had tremendous issues in his third year of football, throwing for 1861 yards in 9 games, for 10 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, all for a fairly measly quarterback rating of 80.2.
More importantly, Jones has not been able to overcome his lack of receiving weapons, despite some good mid-level talent in Juju Smith-Schuster, Devante Parker and the rising rookie talent, Demario Douglas – winning only 2 games en route to losses to the Las Vegas Raiders and edge-less Washington Commanders.
Despite head coach Bill Belichick’s fearsome reputation as arguably the greatest coach in NFL history, it seems as if this season is destined to end in misery, and, slightly more upliftingly, a top 5-10 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, where there is quite the selection of strong, young quarterback talent.
But now with injuries to the recently acquired Jackson, who has played admirably since his return to Foxborough, and left tackle Trent Brown – the New England Patriots are down two starters at key positions that they really could not afford to lose.
The Patriots’ weakest and thinnest position on the board is at tackle, where Brown is their only reliable, full-time tackle on the roster (that you would feel remotely comfortable starting), whilst cornerback has been quite the injury parade – with rookie starter Christian Gonzalez, slot Marcus Jones and veteran Jonathan Jones having been out for much of the year.
Let’s see the impact of these injuries on the New England Patriots, and if they can finally get right against the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday!
