Remember yesterday when I dove into the All-22 and came away with one headline silver lining which was Ja’whaun Bentley looked really good in places, including his interception where he ran like we haven’t seen a linebacker run since the days of Jamie Collins. Welp, today Bentley along with Rex Burkhead were sent to IR.
It appears that Bentley was injured on the final play of the Lions game, adding another level of gut-punch to a season that has been not much fun for the past two weeks.
With @globejimmcbride reporting that Patriots are placing LB Ja’Whaun Bentley on IR, a look at Bentley’s final play Sunday night: Guard T.J. Lang lands on him as he charges downhill to try to tackle Kerryon Johnson. pic.twitter.com/kTKnNIE6vf
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) September 26, 2018
With the lack of speed already glaring in the middle of the field, losing Bentley like this is devastating. Putting more pressure on Hightower, Roberts and Van Noy, a trio that doesn’t need more pressure put on them. Of every defensive player, I’m not sure there’s a player I’d want to lose less. Maybe Trey Flowers but just about anyone else, including Hightower, would be less depressing, which I’d never thought I’d write as recently as 10 days ago but here we are.
The team signed John Simon today, a player that I liked in both his 2013 draft year and last season as a free agent. But he’s not going to replace any of what Bentley was starting to do and he’s sure not going to fill the excitement hole in my heart. Every year we’re reminded this is why football can suck as injuries are just unavoidable and your season depends largely on how lucky you get staying healthy. Six of nine Pats rookies are now on IR, which is just terrible for the long-term development of the team that is already behind the eight ball due to missed and lost picks, all of which come at the bottom of the first round at the earliest.
As for Burkhead what’s there to say? His injury history is lengthy since joining the Pats. He played just 10 games last season and got just three this year. I was hoping against hope that somehow he could somehow magically stay healthy this year but it was one thing after another with Burkhead, making the second running back to hit IR with Jeremy Hill.
All in all, the storm continues to rage for the Patriots. They’ve re-signed Kenjon Barner to help mitigate the Burkhead loss, but he’s not any kind of an early-down or power back that Burkhead and Hill were. They still have a glaring hole and at this point no other option than to run Sony Michel into the ground, which can’t be good for his knee. Ugh.
Maybe Bentley or Burkhead return this season. It’s a small consolation that two players can come off IR, but who knows, we might not see either of them until next summer.
H-hopefully the Patriots are really good and by October they will go on another 10 game win streak. I’m praying the problem is like last year where the problem was between everyone’s ears and it just took some time for them to get it together although the offense is starting to look like a personnel problem. I was kind of surprised Brady didn’t try to force more balls to Gronk and even Hogan on Sunday and instead just kept handing the ball off to Michel for more 3 and outs. The one risky play was really risky on that ball to a double covered Dorsett. Bleh.