The Pats were back in full pads today (all of their three practices in the last two weeks have been) and the good news was that Sebastian Vollmer, Eric Moore and Aaron Hernandez were all back, and Danny Woodhead was no longer in a red no-contact jersey.
The only two missing Pats were Jermaine Cunningham and Myron Pryor. Cunningham has been battling a calf injury, and though Pryor had missed significant time with a back injury his absence is a little mysterious because all reports last week said he was a-okay.
Facing the Jets without Pryor would not be the end of the world. Just about everyone expect the Jets to go with a heavy dose of ground and pound, and while Pryor would be good for depth on the DL his bread and butter would really be against a team that passes to win.
Cunningham on the other hand is significant. He’s one of the Patriots best run stoppers and would probably figure prominently into the game plan. If he can’t go the Pats would be forced to look at either Tully Banta-Cain or Eric Moore at outside linebacker in the 3-4 opposite Rob Ninkovich. Even if Cunningham can go there’s a chance he’ll be at less than 100%, which of course is not good.
