The New England Patriots announced their final injury report on Friday, and as expected, tight end Rob Gronkowski has been ruled out. Wide receiver Chris Hogan was also ruled out, while tight end Martellus Bennett and wide receiver Julian Edelman are both listed as questionable. Both are expected to play.
The most notable thing about this week’s Patriots injury report is that the team did not include Dion Lewis on the injury report, and he is traveling with the team to Santa Clara. Lewis suffered a torn ACL last November, and was activated off the PUP list last Saturday. He was inactive on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked a couple times this week about Lewis’ status. He mentioned how they had only just activated him on Saturday, and, “I mean when a player hasn’t played for a year then they haven’t played for a year.” During the week, Belichick was asked if Lewis would get extra reps in practice to determine if he is ready to be activated on Sunday. Belichick had this to say:
I think any time a player is coming back from missing a significant amount of time, there’s a certain buildup process. Sometimes that accelerates, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it just stays on a straight line course. It’s hard to predict how that’s going to go. There’s a big difference between training and playing football. You can run around a track, run up and down a hill, do 10,000 pushups and all of that. I mean, that’s great, but that’s not being out there with 21 other guys playing football. Football is football. Training is an important part and component of being ready to play football, but playing football is playing football. Especially at this time of year where you’re halfway through the season and teams have quite a bit of scheme in, both us and our opponents, we’re not just looking at kind of some basic stuff like in the beginning or the year or in preseason, which is what preseason is. It’s very basic. We’re at a whole different point, so how does that get acclimated, what’s the right time, what’s the right – it’s a little bit of a feel situation. But to answer, your question, we just keep going. We’ll see.
LeGarrette Blount will start and get the bulk of the carries against the San Francisco 49ers. James White has served as Blount’s backup, but once Lewis is ready to go, there is a good chance White will see his role diminish. It is hard to say right now if Lewis will be active on Sunday. The Patriots could be sufficiently confident about this game that they figure they can give Lewis another week. On the other hand, they might want to use this game as a chance for Lewis to dip his toe in the water. We’ll find out when inactives are announced on Sunday, and then once the Patriots offense hits the field.
Patriots final injury report
Out: TE Rob Gronkowski (chest), WR Chris Hogan (back)
Questionable: TE Martellus Bennett (ankle), WR Julian Edelman (foot)
Friday practice participation report
DNP: TE Rob Gronkowski (chest)
Limited: TE Martellus Bennett (ankle), WR Julian Edelman (foot), WR Chris Hogan (back)
Thursday practice participation report
DNP: TE Rob Gronkowski (chest), T Nate Solder (not injury related)
Limited: TE Martellus Bennett (ankle), DT Alan Branch (back), WR Julian Edelman (foot), WR Chris Hogan (back)
Wednesday practice participation report
DNP: TE Rob Gronkowski (chest)
Limited: TE Martellus Bennett (ankle), DT Alan Branch (back), WR Julian Edelman (foot), WR Chris Hogan (back)