Heading into Sunday’s AFC Championship game, both the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos are battling some pretty significant injuries.
The biggest, of course, is Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, who suffered a broken bone in his ankle in last weekend’s 33-30 win over the Buffalo Bills. The injury forced backup Jarrett Stidham into the starting role — and the pressure has never been higher.
Stidham has attempted just 66 passes in his three seasons with the Broncos — all of which came during the 2023 season. He has a tall order ahead of him in facing a Patriots defense that ranked seventh in the NFL this season and allowed he fourth-fewest points per game (18.8).
“Stiddy’s been waiting for this moment for the entirety of his career,” Broncos offensive lineman Mike McGlinchey said. “He’s more prepared than anybody would be in this situation. And he can ball, he can flat out play quarterback. We’ve seen it every day in practice. We’ve seen it in training camp. I have no doubts he’s going to go out there and play his butt off.”
Brutal Injury Rocks Patriots Defense
While Denver is doing all it can to overcome Nix’s injury, New England has a pretty significant injury of its own that it will have to work around.
“For the AFC Title Game: The #Patriots have ruled out leading sacker Harold Landry because of a knee injury,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport stated. “Meanwhile, WR Mack Hollins (abdomen) is questionable, with optimism that he goes.”
Landry’s loss is a big one.
He led the Patriots with 8.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss, in addition to his 48 pressures, 29 hurries, and 10 QB hits, according to Pro Football Focus. His 11.9% pass-rush win-rate was also second-highest among edge-rushers, behind only K’Lavon Chaisson (14.9%).
Without Landry, the pass-rushing onus falls on Chaisson, who had 54 pressures, 34 hurries and 7.5 sacks, linebacker Elijah Ponder (15 pressures, 9 hurries, 4 sacks), and Milton Williams (36 pressures, 27 hurries, 3.5 sacks).
After six seasons with the Tennessee Titans, where he played for Vrabel, Landry signed a 3-year, $43.5 million contract with the Patriots during the offseason.
Landry has totaled 8.5 or more sacks, 40 or more pressures, and 25 of more hurries in five of his last six seasons.
Vrabel Gets Brutally Honest About Player Release
One of the players many fans were likely banking on stepping in and filling any holes along the front seven was defensive end Darrell Taylor.
The former Seattle Seahawks second-round pick was claimed by the team last week, and he was expected to make his Patriots debut this week.
The only problem is he’s no longer on the roster.
In an awkward interaction with a reporter, in which head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about Taylor’s status, the 50-year-old coach gave a brutally honest answer about what went down with Taylor.
“How has Darrell Taylor gotten acclimated so far?” the reporter asked.
“Uh, yeah, we released Darrel Taylor,” Vrabel responded. “We’ll put that out here at 4:00, so not very well.”
The 28-year-ol Taylor has bounced around between Seattle, Chicago, and Houston before signing with New England last week. In his five-year NFL career, he’d logged 126 tackles, 121 pressures, 73 hurries, 24.5 sacks, 22 QB hits, 8 forced fumbles, 5 passes defensed, and a fumble recovery, per Pro Football Focus.
