Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills Injury Report: Rhamondre Stevenson, Hunter Henry, Jabrill Peppers and More
Episode Date: December 29, 2023As the New England Patriots prepare to face the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, running back Rhamondre Stevenson will not be among the Pats making the trip to Western New York. Joining host Mike D’Abate is... Dr. Kyle Trimble of BangedUpBills.com to provide analysis on Stevenson’s injury, along with insight on the injuries to Hunter Henry and Jabrill Peppers. Dr. Trimble also provides a breakdown of the Bills injuries ahead of this upcoming New Year’s Eve matchup.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-new-england-patriots/id1140512627?i=1000632782469 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriotsAnd follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashGet 50% off up to $10 value when you spend $15 or more on your FIRST order, when you download the DoorDash app and enter code LOCKED23. Subject to change. Terms apply.PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnfl and use code lockedonnfl for a first deposit match up to $100!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG(CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat(CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast.
Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful,
and thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage,
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And Pats fans, it is that time of year the new england patriots
pen ultimate game of the 2023 season whether you feel it's merciful or not will take place this
sunday new year's eve orchard park new york highmark stadium the new england patriots visiting
the buffalo bills and if you tuned in yesterday here on Locked On Patriots, you know it was time to cross
the streams with Locked On Bills host Joe Marino, my good friend and colleague.
Luckily for us today, all of the Patriots and Bills walking wounded are covered right
here on Locked On Patriots because I'm welcoming in another good man, another good friend of
mine and a very valued contributor here to Locked On Patriots, as well as Locked
On Bills.
He is a doctor of physical therapy.
He is the publisher of bangedupbills.com, an overall expert when it comes to injuries
in the AFC East.
My good friend, Dr. Kyle Trimble joins me here today.
Kyle, thank you so much for coming to me in friendship today.
Welcome back to Locked On Patriots.
Of course, Mike. Always
glad to be on here. And it's always our pleasure
to have you on. Very few
have the ability to give the insight that you
can provide when it comes to
both the Patriots and the Bills walking
wounded. And folks, he also
sprinkles in the Dolphins and the Jets. He does
it all in the AFCE, so
I want to check out to see what he brings to the table
each and every day at
bangedupbills.com but you know kyle we'll start with the news of the day when it comes to the
new england patriots and that is from andre stevenson being placed on season ending injured
reserve obviously he will not be among the patriots making the trip to orchard park this weekend
suffered the high ankle sprain while attempting to secure a first down
in the first quarter of the Patriots' Week 13 loss to the LA Chargers.
Now, Stevenson initially had an MRI,
and that MRI revealed that his injury might have him back on the field
within a couple of weeks, but he had not practiced
prior to his being placed on injured reserve yesterday
since incurring the
injury on December 3rd. Now, in this type of an injury with a high ankle sprain, is it typical
where these types of return times can fluctuate? And I think what really is on the minds of most
Patriots fans is, what does this mean in the future for Ramondre Stevenson and his playing time and
his ability to return to the gridiron strongly in 2024? Well, Mike, that's a lot of questions
for Ramondre and obviously with him being one of the few bright spots on the offense, a lot of
people are concerned and rightfully so. So I'm going to go briefly back, talk about what happened
when the injury occurred and kind of talk about how we diagnose it, what you're looking at, timelines, go along that mindset there.
So, like you said, back on December 3rd, he suffered a high ankle sprain to the right side due to hip drop tackle against the Chargers in the first quarter.
And he was able to leave and get assessed.
And I don't believe he ever came back to the game.
And then, of course, they come out later and say he has a high ankle sprain.
He'll be out for several weeks there.
At the time, you always look to try to give the guy a chance to rehab
and see what they can do and see if they can kind of come back from that.
These high ankle sprains can be anywhere from a week or two
to three, four, five, six weeks.
It depends on the position
that they play and of course the severity there too. So that plays a lot of part into that.
Some ways they diagnose the high ankle sprains is obviously like you mentioned before through MRI,
they're looking at any edema or soft tissue swelling in the affected area in between the
tibia and fibula. And then of course the talus that makes up the
ankle joint in the lower ankle foot area. So looking for that, looking at damage to the
anterior posterior tail fibular ligaments. And they're also just looking for any damage to the
syndesmic ligaments that kind of help keep the tibia and fibula together because it's kind of
bound at the bottom and then it articulates over the talus of the foot there and it helps kind of create the ankle joint. So some ways we can
diagnose it not through MRI. The MRI is done secondary to once they have a good idea what's
going on there. There's a few different tests they can do. That includes a hop test, which is
as simple as this. They hop on the ankle and see if that reproduces the pain. They can also do a squeeze test. And what happens is they have the patient lie flat,
they work about halfway up the leg, and then they squeeze the tibia and fibula together
up higher. So if they get a separation, that sensation of that pain lower in the ankle,
then that's a higher suspicion for a high ankle sprain. Other things they can do is replicate the mechanism of
injury. The mechanism of injury is dorsiflexion, which is where the foot comes up, and eversion,
which is where the foot comes out. So what happens in the hip drop tackle, like we talked about,
the foot got caught, pointed outward, and the foot was flexed upward, and then the foot was rotated out when the player fell on the outside part of the leg there.
So that creates a high ankle sprain that separates the tibia and fibula.
And that's where that syndesmotic ligament is damaged there.
So they reproduce that by doing that exact motion.
They'll get that same pain.
And then finally, if they palpate the front of the ankle and they palpate the syndesmotic ligament and it's tender, that's usually a pretty good sign.
So you can look at video and say, hey, that looks like a high ankle sprain.
And then they test it.
And most likely it is.
There are times where medial ankle sprains do look like that.
But then they turn out to be high ankle sprains, which is unfortunate.
And, you know, it's just really unfortunate because no amount of tape no amount
of rehab is going to speed these things up there but like i said sometimes positional demands can
allow guys come back quicker than others with running back they're digging their their feet
in the ground and driving forward that's gonna put a lot of stress through the ankle so to try
to come back and uh push through that makes it real difficult you see a lot of guys lose a lot
of power uh
lateral mobility and they just can't really ever get back up to speed within the season that the
injury happens so it wasn't surprising to see a remandre missed the past three games that's
pretty typical for running backs to miss you know two three games like this here what was surprising
was the fact that he was placed on the injury reserve now that might have been due to the
patriots out of it.
He has nothing to play for.
Let's get you right, and let's use your roster spot for somebody else
so they want to see how they develop there.
So I don't believe his injured reserve status was indicative of the severity
of the ankle sprain, but more or less a roster management decision.
And then finally, with the final part of the question,
will this affect him for next year?
As long as he gives the rest and rehab he needs to, it shouldn um i know guys do have a high history of high ankle sprains you
might see some residual laxity in there but it shouldn't be a thing where you have it once and
it's going to continue to have it again and again it's just that thing needs to heal up in there
and give the time to just really get back to normal if it doesn't and there's residual laxity
or he's still having problems they can do a tightrope procedure which we've seen you know plenty of alabama players do we
saw kenny pickett the steelers do it earlier this year like they have different options to help this
thing make sure it happens and heals properly just a matter of if there's residual chronic issues but
i don't anticipate this being a problem down the line in 2024 and beyond yeah that, that's definitely good news for the New England Patriots and great news for their fans
who really enjoy watching Ramondre run the football, like you said earlier.
I'm glad you mentioned the hip drop tackle because it's become somewhat of a controversial play
or a controversial defensive move in the NFL.
Folks, for those of you that are unfamiliar with what a hip drop tackle might be,
the defensive player is going to approach his target from either the side or behind, mostly from behind, but it could be from the side as well.
They wrap their arms around that player and almost essentially become dead weight to drop into the ground.
And in a lot of cases, they'll land directly on the offensive player's legs.
And Kyle, I thought you described that very well in terms of what
happened to Ramondre when he left in the first quarter of the game against the Chargers.
According to NFL executives, we've heard several come out and say that this type of tackle can
pose up to a 25-time higher risk of injury than a normal tackle. If the NFL decided that they were going to eliminate this,
is there any reason to believe that high ankle sprains could be reduced as a result? Or is this
just something that players, especially running backs and wide receivers, and maybe even quarterbacks,
mobile quarterbacks might be prone to no matter what? They're going to be prone to it no matter
what. I know that there's a
controversy hip drop hip drop tackle being that dangerous play i know a lot of players come out
and said hey how do you want us to take down these guys you can't hit them high you can't hit them
low these guys will just try to hang on every which way to take these guys down so i do see
the safety risk of the hip drop hip drop tackle i don't know that you want to eliminate it but
there is
concern you do see injuries we saw the market injuries earlier this year but we see plenty
of high ankle sprains as a result of guys just being in the piles getting rolled up on like
it's not going to get rid of the high ankle sprains you might see some of the more traumatic
high ankle sprains or even feel their fractures and whatnot reduce as a result of eliminating the hip drop tackle but
there has to be a fine line between either you get rid of it or you try to police it just
eventually at some point you're not going to be able to take these guys down because you're not
going to hit them any which way right yeah very good point i mean it's one thing to want to
eliminate injury and do everything that you can to prevent it. But in a contact sport like football, and really I think any contact sport, folks,
there comes a risk with no matter what you do on the field,
no matter how these guys are taught to tackle,
there's always going to be the risk of injury.
And thank you for enlightening us on not only the history of these types of injuries,
the typical recovery time, but also specifically to Ramondre,
because I know Patriots fans would
have loved to see this matchup, especially this late in the season. Ramondre was starting to come
into his own and really become the Ramondre of old, finishes the season with 619 yards,
four touchdowns, averaging four yards per attempt, but he was starting to be able to break the
tackles again and really show that physical aggressive running style and with
the Buffalo Bills allowing a shade over 111 yards per game and 4.6 yards per carry yeah the jobs of
the New England Patriots runners would have been made that much easier if Ramondre Stevenson were
in the lineup this weekend so ultimately folks we got to wait until 2024 to see Ramondre look fantastic, as my good friend Murph would say, but he will be back on the field.
But two Patriots players in particular may not be on the field,
and they are on the injury report right now.
Jabril Peppers with a hamstring injury and Hunter Henry with a knee injury.
We're going to talk about those injuries with Dr. Kyle Trimble in just a moment
when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues,
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Patriots fans, thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage.
And today we are talking all things New England Patriots
and Buffalo Bills walking wounded
as we head into this
Week 17 matchup in Western New York.
New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills set for a 1 p.m. kickoff on New Year's Eve
from Highmark Stadium.
Joining me today, Dr. Kyle Trimble.
Kyle, earlier on, we talked about Ramondre Stevenson and the injury to the New England
Patriots star running back.
It definitely hurt this team to have Ramondre out back. It definitely hurt this team to have Ramondre out,
and it will hurt this team to have Ramondre out against the Buffalo Bills.
That often means that players have to step up
and they have to take on the mantra and take on extra responsibility.
Well, one of the guys that would normally take on extra offensive responsibility
with someone like a Ramondre Stevenson out would
be Hunter Henry, team captain this year, one of the more durable New England Patriots.
Coming from someone who covered Henry since he was back with the Chargers, durability
and Hunter Henry didn't often go in the same sentence.
But since he came to New England, he's only missed one game.
And that one game was last week's win against the Denver Broncos.
So I know you know, and Patriots fans are well familiar with Hunter Henry suffering a knee injury
at the start of the fourth quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs. He had seven catches, 66 yards,
and a touchdown in that game, and he did not return to the game. We've seen him in dribs and drabs on the practice field, Kyle,
but judging from what I've seen,
it doesn't look like he's been a participant in many of these,
very, very limited.
Judging from what you've seen from his knee injury
and what you've heard from some of the reports coming out,
is it realistic to expect Hunter to possibly suit up for this game on Sunday?
Watching the video, I have it pulled up on my desktop right now.
It looks like an MCL sprain, and it's because the safety or quarterback
hit him low while he was trying to catch the ball out to the right.
That's why he missed last week because it looked like a thai contusion at first,
but then the way that the safety quarterback hit,
that it hit the outside part of his knee, which then affects the inside part of the knee,
which is MCL sprain.
And they take a few weeks to kind of get back.
And with how the team is, you know, doing in terms of wins, losses,
you got to wonder if he says, Hey, is it worth me to get back out there?
I understand the Patriots can play upset to the bills and I'm sure he wants
to be back out there as a competitor, but is he gonna be able to cut,
is he gonna be able to block anchor everything you need to do as a tight end?
Cause they're so versatile.
Can he get back out there and play?
And he's been limited this week from what I've seen.
Of course we see with every Patriots injury report,
everybody's limited.
Everybody's questionable.
It's really hard to read.
I was mildly surprised.
He didn't play last week.
Cause usually these guys are playing through and he's coming off some really
productive games. I believe the past two games was most productive of the season
so it might just come down to can he feel he can go uh the fact that looks like an mcl sprain he
missed last week leads me to believe he won't play in addition to the win-loss record but
i could see him trying to go just because your pride and you know wanting to beat the bills
great information kyle and the one thing i always remember about covering hunter when he was a los I could see him trying to go just because of pride and wanting to beat the Bills. Great information, Kyle.
And the one thing I always remember about covering Hunter when he was a Los Angeles
Charger, and even into this while he is a New England Patriot, is he's a warrior.
He wants to get back out on the field.
This is a guy that really thrives on competition.
And you know as well as I that sometimes athletes can be a little bit too headstrong for their
own good.
If in fact he pushes and believes that he wants to get back out on the field
and wants to help Bailey Zappi and try to see if he can beat the Buffalo Bills this weekend,
is there any way that he can do further damage,
potentially even damage that could keep him from his 2024 preparations?
It's possible.
I mean, with the MCL sprain, that's a well-healing
ligament that usually does not require surgery. It just requires several weeks off there.
If he does try to play, he would wear a hinged knee brace to limit that varus valgus stress that
we placed through the knee. He could hypothetically cause more damage with the already unstable knee
in there. You know, you worry about ACL tear,
which I know is in this history. You worry about PCL. You worry about all the other injuries in
there. The hinged knee brace would help cut back on some of the hyperextension or that varus valgus
stress that would stress the MCL further or even the LCL. And then even to a lesser extent would
reduce the ACL and PCL. So it does help, but doesn't eliminate the possibility altogether.
And of course, there's other injuries too,
because if you create more stability at the knee,
then you're putting a little more stress on the ankle or the hip there.
So it might just come down to, does he limit his route tree?
Does he limit his snaps?
Are there ways for him to get out there?
Does he come more just a blocking tight end,
just work more north-south rather than east-west west it might just come down to what he can do out there
if he can still be effective more so than the next guy up so there's a chance he could cause
further damage but the team's not going to put him in unnecessary risk and risk him for 24 2024
and beyond yeah exactly without question and i mean you look at guys like Micah Secchi,
Farrell Brown that are on this roster right now,
you have to believe that they're going to be able to carry the load
just like they did against the Denver Broncos.
Patriots probably going to have to get a little more inventive
on the offensive side of the ball,
and hopefully cooler heads will prevail in that.
Hunter is not the only high-profile injury right now on this team, Kyle.
Jabril Peppers missed his fifth straight practice for the New England Patriots today with a hamstring injury he missed
his first game of 2023 last Sunday night against Denver his continued absence continues to put his
status for this weekend in doubt now Jabril has been one of the Patriots top defenders this year
one of their more physical guys in that defensive backfield,
and knowing the way the Patriots are looking to approach this Bills offense,
what can you tell us about what you've learned about Jabril's injury
and how much of a lingering problem could this be for him?
It could linger for a while.
It's a fortune he missed last week.
It was really interesting about Jabril's injury was there wasn't anything from my side of the beat reporters um that came
out during the kansas city chiefs game he played in 91 of the snaps against the chiefs which is
pretty much the full game it comes out of the hamstring and then he hasn't played last week
which i was surprised because usually if you see it in report injury that's okay maybe it's
significant enough you're gonna miss that but then
if you're playing most of the game unless you injure at the very end which once again i didn't
see that i'll be honest i don't review every single patriots you know game i don't look at
every dolphins game it just there's simply not enough time uh so it's possibly could injure it
in the game but it's really surprising he missed he does have a history going back the past few
years i don't have a complete history but i know this goes back at least to 2021 potentially 2020 where there's a
hamstring injury um it's kept him out for a little bit of time now it's not a death sentence that he
misses some time plenty of players have hamstring injury histories it's just how you manage them do
you let it do you continue to try to play through that let it get worse or you try to give it
yourself the chance to rest up and recover there?
And with his position being safety, he's going to need a lot more of that wide range east-west,
you know, north-south to really just patrol the second half of the field.
And he needs to make sure that he can get to where he needs to be at on a moment's notice there.
So just not having the ability to push off the affected side might prevent him from really getting out there of course backpedaling so he hasn't practiced it
all week at all this week and it's you know thursday night as we're talking so i'm leaning
toward him not playing once again lost season uh it's just unfortunate because this seemed like
this continues to linger so he's gonna need a good rehab recovery in the offseason to really
work on eccentric strengthening
to give the hamstring the best chance it has to not re-injure itself but sometimes the best laid
plans you know things still fall apart so you hope that he just takes care of himself and just
focuses on getting rehab so he can be ready for next season potentially every game yeah without
question and look bottom line folks when you look at what the Patriots are playing for, as opposed to what their potential might be for next season,
Jabril is going to be a key member of that secondary for a number of years to come.
The Patriots are very high on him. If Bill Belichick is still the coach here next year,
you can bet Jabril is going to be a big part of that defense. He is very high on his abilities,
and you want to make sure that he's good for long term.
So I agree with you.
I don't expect him to suit up in this game.
Him missing the two practices this week, I think, almost confirms that.
We'll get final confirmation later today, folks, when the final injury report comes out.
Kyle, thank you for your insight on the New England Patriots.
It's been a plethora of walking wounded all season long, whether you're talking Christian Gonzalez and Matthew Judon,
right to the players we've talked about today,
and Ramondre Stevenson and Hunter Henry and Jabril Peppers.
But the New England Patriots do have an opponent this weekend as well,
and there are some walking wounded on the Bills.
Kyle's going to give us his insight on the team he covers day in and day out.
So don't go anywhere, folks.
This episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast will continue right here
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LockedOn listeners, thank you once again for joining us here today on Locked On Patriots.
It is a Patriots-Bills injury report, and we have the good fortune of being joined today
by Dr. Kyle Trimble, doctor of physical therapy, the publisher of bangedupbills.com, and an
overall expert on all injuries with regard to the AFC East.
And Kyle, I want to thank you for giving us your insight on injuries to Ramondre Stevenson
and Hunter Henry and Jabril Peppers.
Definitely injuries that are of concern and of high concern to New England Patriots fans.
But you know, I'm a Godfather fan.
You know, I love to say keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
We are about to do that here on Lockdown Patriots.
The Buffalo Bills right now have a number of players,
limited, full participants.
They had the good fortune of only having one player
miss practice on Thursday.
That was Shaq Lawson.
It's the time of year.
It's an illness.
We don't know what the extent of which that's going to extend to,
but there are a few Bills that are popping up on the report
for various reasons.
We've seen Micah Hyde with an X-stinger. We've seen AJ Epineza with a rib injury. Daquan Jones with a pectoral injury. Leonard Floyd
has had both wrist and rib injuries listed. When you look at the Buffalo Bills, this is a team you
color day in and day out. What should Patriots fans be watching for when this team takes the
field on Sunday? I'll tell you right now, the Bills report looks worse than it really is.
But I'm looking at it on my computer right now,
and we're going to just kind of work down from the top there.
So Terrell Bernard is one player you're going to want to watch out for.
He suffered what appeared to be a medial ankle sprain,
I believe sometime in the second quarter.
He was just trying to turn up the field and tweaked his ankle there.
So I always grow concerned that when it looks like a medial ankle sprain,
it could be a high ankle sprain like we talked about earlier.
But the fact that he's been limited all week
and he's able to continue back and play on it,
I suggest more of a medial ankle sprain.
He should be able to play through that,
but he might be a little bit limited at times,
but he's still a human missile.
But he's one to watch out for come Sunday.
AJ Epinesa is another one you want to watch out for.
He's had a career year so far, especially in contract year.
He suffered a left rib injury against the Chiefs,
and what happened was he got the interception off of Patrick Holmes.
He got tackled.
A huge offensive lineman fell on him,
and he had told the press that the ball was wedged between his ribs and when the offensive
lineman fell on him and the fact that he's missed the past two weeks and he has been able to
practice suggested more a rib cartilage injury which are slower to heal than a rib uh fracture
which they can just inject the nerve and then they can numb it up there so he looks like be on track
to play but he still might be limited and could have an early exit if he re-aggravates that area.
Some other injuries to note, you mentioned Leonard Floyd. He did suffer a left rib injury. He got
blasted. He came right back out and then continued playing, so it's just more of a bruised rib
situation, but he's been a tear off the edge all this season. DeMar Hamlin, I don't see him playing
just because it looked like he suffered a labrum injury. He got hit really hard on special teams.
And the fact that Micah Hyde is looking to come back this week after having a neck stinger kind of puts Hamlin on the back burner, which is fine.
He's been primary special teams player this year.
What's going on with Micah Hyde is that he had his neck fusion last year, missed all of last year except for two games at the beginning.
And then he came back, and then he's been having
three stingers in the past six or seven weeks now and what happens when you have the stinger
the stinger is the symptom of the underlying issue there so whether it's another hernia disc
there's some type of stenosis in there there's some type of irritation in the brachial plexus
somewhere in the neck every time he gets hit it just kind of restarts that inflammation process
and he has to give it time to rest and recover.
So he's had a long history of neck injuries.
I anticipate him playing just because this could be a home game.
They want to get back out there, and he's been two weeks,
and he's a far better player than DeMar Hamlin.
So there's definitely some of the big ones.
And then other guys you want to watch out for, Ty Johnson, he had AC joint sprain.
If he doesn't go, Leonard Fournette will probably be
called up again because they're running out of opportunities to play him until they get the
playoffs. And then the other guy you want to watch out for is Daquan Jones. He suffered a right
pectoral injury back in week five against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He tore the pectoral,
had it repaired, and he's approaching the three-month mark, which will be this Sunday, Monday, in that range there.
So he's been practicing in full all week, which is a very pleasant surprise.
It just might come down to if you need to activate him
and start getting him some reps against the Patriots,
or do you wait until next week and get him against Miami?
So he'll be one to watch.
They did release Jermaine Effiety on Thursday, which opens up a roster
spot, but they also can bring Justin Shorter back, who's going to be closing his practice window here
soon. So there's a lot of moving pieces with that stuff, but watch for Daquan Jones potentially
being activated and then watch for Terrell Bernard, Epinesa, and then Micah Hyde will be ones to see
whether they play. But the only one I'm really concerned about moving forward is DeMar Hamill,
which might be a non-factor if Hyde comes back.
The Bills are in a much different position right now.
The Patriots are not necessarily playing for anything, like I said, other than draft position.
But the Bills really need this game if they want to get to next week against the Dolphins
and have that game potentially end up being for the AFC East Crown.
So how the Bills will deploy their players on Sunday, folks,
is going to be a lot different than what we see in New England
and what we see from the New England Patriots.
That could be a factor as well, but excellent information.
Kyle, what can I say?
I thank you so much for lending your wisdom, your counsel,
the way only you can.
I do appreciate all of your contributions
and for being a great friend and ally to Lockdown Patriots,
even though we are on different sides of the street on this one.
Before I let you go, please let everyone know
where they can reach out to you, interact with you,
and the type of coverage they can expect from you
through this week, the following week, and into the playoffs
from the great voice, the great desk,
and the great pen of Dr. Kyle Trimble.
You can find all my work at bangedupbills.com.
You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, or X, Facebook, Reddit.
I post up on the Reddit subreddit all the time.
You can find me anywhere.
Feel free to ask questions.
I'll try to provide the best amount of information possible.
And hopefully it's a good game for both sides this coming weekend.
Absolutely. Hopefully a good game and hopefully a good game for both sides this coming weekend. Absolutely.
Hopefully a good game and hopefully a healthy game for both sides.
Thank you all for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots
coverage.
Don't forget, we're not done here on Locked On Patriots yet.
We end the week in style as Murph joins me tomorrow.
Breakdown the monster keys to victory, folks.
What do the Patriots need to do to pull off the upset
in Orchard Park? Can they do it?
Murph and I will answer that question this
weekend, but in the meantime, I
once again thank Dr. Kyle Trimble for
all of his contributions, his wisdom, and
his counsel today, but I thank all of you
for taking time out of your schedule to
join us here on Locked on Patriots.
On behalf of Dr. Kyle Trimble, I
am Mike DeBate reminding you to stay safe and to stay well
and to be the change you wish to see in the world.
Have a great day, everyone,
and we'll see you back here again tomorrow on Locked on Patriots.