Week 17 Injury Report: Patriots vs. Bills + 4 Patriots Named to the Pro Bowl

You probably lost track of it over the holidays (you're excused) but the Patriots (11-4) have a very important game in their regular season finale, Sunday (1, CBS) vs. Buffalo (6-9) at Gillette Stadium. With a win, the Pats will earn the No. 2 seed and a bye in the first round of the playoffs. They can also get it with a loss but since it is the Bills, let's just focus on beating that hopeless franchise.

Today's injury report had some interesting things on it: Josh Boyce (ankle) is out and Devin McCourty (concussion) is doubtful for New England. Bills mercurial wide receiver Stevie Johnson is out (his mother passed away) and safety Aaron Williams (ribs) is also out while quarterback EJ Manuel (knee) is doubtful but backup Thad Lewis has already been named the starter.

The Patriots have 11 players that are questionable: Kyle Arrington (groin), Alfonzo Dennard (knee/shoulder), Aaron Dobson (foot), Dane Fletcher (groin), Steve Gregory (finger/knee), Rob Ninkovich (ankle), Nate Solder (concussion), Brandon Spikes (knee), Will Svitek (ankle), Kenbrell Thompkins (hip) and Shane Vereen (groin).

In the past, I've written a specific blog just about the Pro Bowl selections for the Patriots but in my wiser age, I realized who gives a shit? The Pro Bowl rosters were announced tonight and it still boggles my mind that so many people care who is on it or not. I mean really? Anyways, I just thought I should mention that the Pats had four Pro Bowlers in 2013: Tom Brady, Logan Mankins, Aqib Talib and Matthew Slater. Bye!

UPDATE 12/28: Safety Kanorris Davis and cornerback Justin Green were promoted from the practice squad for tomorrow's game.

UPDATE 12/29: The Patriots inactives are Steve Beauharnais, Dennard, Boyce, Isaac Sopoaga, McCourty, Jake Bequette and Chris Barker. The Bills inactives are Manuel, Johnson, WR Cordell Roberson, RB Ronnie Wingo, DB Brandon Smith, OG Mark Asper and OG Antoine McClain.

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Week 16 Injury Report: Patriots at Ravens

You can have the Jets and Broncos, for my money I'll take the Ravens as New England's biggest rival from the last few years. These battle-tested teams mirror each other in many ways which is why the games always seem to be instant classics that come down to the wire (haha well at least in the regular season). Sunday (4:25, CBS) shouldn't be any different as both teams are scrambling to make the playoffs. The Patriots (10-4) need a win (or Dolphins loss) to clinch another AFC East title while the Ravens (8-6) probably have to win out to make the postseason.

New England's rookie receiver Josh Boyce (ankle) is out while fellow rookies Kenbrell Thompkins (hip) and Aaron Dobson (foot) are both questionable but it sounds like at least one of them will return in this extremely important contest. Five other Patriots are questionable: Alfonzo Dennard (knee), Dane Fletcher (groin), Nate Solder (concussion), Kyle Arrington (groin) and Brandon Spikes (knee).

For the defending Super Bowl champs from Baltimore, cornerback Asa Jackson (thigh) is doubtful. Four Ravens are questionable: linebacker Albert McClellan (neck), running back Ray Rice (thigh), quarterback Joe Flacco (knee) and linebacker Elvis Dumervil (ankle). You know that Rice, Flacco and Dumervil will play so don't pretend otherwise.

This hasn't gotten the hype it deserved but it should only take a few plays to remember how much these teams hate yet respect one another. Stay tuned on Sunday for the rest of the inactives.

UPDATE 12/21: Thompkins and Solder are out, so yikes.

UPDATE 12/22: The Patriots inactives are Jake Bequette, Dane Fletcher, Isaac Sopoaga, D.J. Williams, Thompkins, Solder and Boyce. The Ravens inactives are Jackson, S Omar Brown, McClellan, C Ryan Jensen, WR Deonte Thompson, TE Dallas Clark and DT Brandon Williams.

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Happy Trails To Michael Jenkins, We Hardly Knew Ya

Odds are that nobody thought Michael Jenkins was going to make the Patriots 53-man roster (which will be decided on August 31) heading into the 2013 NFL regular season or at least he wouldn't have much of an impact if he did. New England took any intrigue (haha yeah right) out of the equation by releasing the 10-year veteran wide receiver this afternoon.

If they are healthy, I feel like the five receivers (assuming they carry that many on their active roster) heading into the September 8 opener at Buffalo will be Danny Amendola, Aaron Dobson, Julian Edelman, Josh Boyce and KenBrell Thompkins. Of course, they could always pick up another veteran that gets cut by another team before Week 1. In fact, I hope they do that since looking at that aforementioned list, you have to wonder how they'll do when the games get real.

In other Pats news, after giving heart attacks to Pats fans around the world yesterday afternoon, Tom Brady appears to be fine (albeit with a new brace on his left knee) at their walk-through for tomorrow's second preseason game (vs. Tampa Bay). Exhale.

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"Who Needs Experienced Receivers?"-The New England Patriots

We are less than a week away from the 2013 training camp starting for the New England Patriots and at the moment, their top three wide receivers are Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman and Michael Jenkins. Um, holy shit! The news that they released receiver Donald Jones today without ever taking a snap in preseason or regular season wasn't particularly noteworthy on the surface except when you consider all the issues surrounding their passing game. Aaron Hernandez is in jail (bet you didn't know that), Rob Gronkowski had more surgeries than that poor bastard in Operation while Wes Welker is now playing in Denver and Brandon Lloyd is a free agent. It makes you wonder what Tom Brady thinks about all these developments (hint: it can't be good).

This heaps more undue pressure on rookie wide receivers Aaron Dobson and Josh Boyce, who I can't say I know much about either way. The best we can hope is that New England changes its identity to more of a running the ball to set up the pass (something which basically doesn't exist in today's NFL) offense coupled with a good defense. Yikes. Thankfully for the Pats, they still compete in the worst division in the NFL and sports so no matter how bad things look in the preseason, they should still find a way to go at worst 4-2 against the miserable Dolphins, Jets and Bills thus winning their millionth AFC East title (woo!) in a row.

It's hard to remember a time in the past decade (since it never occurred) during their amazing run of consistent success when the Patriots faced this many issues heading into the season. Not what you're looking for when you're coming off the AFC Championship Game and a few steps away from their first title in eight long years.

UPDATE 7/23: The players won't take the field until Friday but today it was announced that Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman will start on the active/PUP list. Rookie defensive lineman Armond Armstead was placed on the non-football illness list. Players on the active/PUP list can be activated any time, whereas if they're on the reserve/PUP list then they miss at least the first six weeks in the regular season.

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