One of the last gut punches of the offseason is usually the announcement of the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, which quickly tells you who isn’t quite fully recovered from offseason injury/surgeries. Often this list comes with surprises, but this year everything looks pretty straightforward.
Patriots opening camp on active/PUP list: Amendola, Edelman, Clay Harbor, Tre’ Jackson, Dion Lewis, Shaq Mason, Sebastian Vollmer.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) July 25, 2016
Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola both recently underwent surgery after injury-plagued seasons. Dion Lewis and Shaq Mason made appearances at the final day of mini-camp but aren’t quite ready to jump into the action this week. Sebastian Vollmer’s status has been under-the-radar this offseason, but he went through plenty of small injury issues last season as well.
All had lingering issues that will need to managed early on.
The good news is that left tackle Nate Solder, who played just three full games in 2015, is not on the list. Also that zero members of the defense will start out on the sideline. That’s a great start for them, especially with so many physical players who had their fair share of injury issues last season.
The offensive pieces that are out will be vital in the long haul, especially Edelman and Lewis. Their absences will give more reps to younger players and hopefully spur their development. Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell would do well to take advantage of the extra time with Brady.
Players can come off the PUP list at any time. If they aren’t removed from the PUP list by the start of the regular season, they can be kept on it through the first six weeks of the season. At this point, it wouldn’t appear any of those opening camp on the list would be likely candidates to remain on the list into the season, but there can be a roster advantage to stashing someone away.