{"id":40648,"date":"2025-12-27T15:48:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T15:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648"},"modified":"2025-12-27T15:48:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T15:48:50","slug":"patriots-get-more-bad-news-and-not-from-their-own-injury-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mike-Vrabel-Patriots-Bad-News_d0f0a9.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mike-Vrabel-Patriots-Bad-News_d0f0a9.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mike-Vrabel-Patriots-Bad-News_d0f0a9.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mike-Vrabel-Patriots-Bad-News_d0f0a9.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The New England Patriots have already clinched a playoff spot, sit atop the AFC East as clear favorites to win the division, and have won 12 games \u2014 four more than in their last two seasons combined. At first glance, things could not be going better for the six-time Super Bowl-winning franchise in its quest to regain the dominance it held for 2001 to 2019.<\/p>\n<p>But look a little deeper and there are danger signs for the Patriots as they head toward the postseason for the first time since the 2021 season \u2014 and only the second since future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady departed the team following the 2019 campaign. Their own injury report issued on Friday ahead of Sunday\u2019s road game against the New York Jets was bad enough \u2014 seven key players listed as out and three more deemed questionable.<\/p>\n<p>And that doesn\u2019t count rookie left tackle Will Campbell, who is not eligible to come off the injured reserve list until the final week of the regular season.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Bad News From West Coast Impacts Patriots\u2019 Chances<\/h2>\n<p>More bad news came in on Friday, however, this time from the West Coast and it directly affects the Patriots\u2019 chances to secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC \u2014 a possibility for which they now have slightly better than a one-in-three chance if they win their final two games, according to a computer model created by The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Athletic<\/em> model may not have taken into account the injury report issued Friday by the Los Angeles Chargers \u2014 news that directly impacts the Patriots\u2019 quest to grab that top seed. Here\u2019s why, and why the top seed is critically important for head coach Mike Vrabel and his young New England squad.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Why Chargers-Texans Is Key For NE<\/h2>\n<p>On Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, the 11-4 Los Angeles Chargers host the 10-5 Houston Texans at SoFi Stadium. The Chargers have already clinched at least a wild-card playoff berth. The Texans hold the No. 7 seed in the AFC and are fighting to keep it or better yet, move up in the seedings.<\/p>\n<p>It is the Chargers who are the team the Patriots will be watching, however. If they win on Saturday, their Week 18 game against the Denver Broncos becomes all-important for New England. Why?<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots\u2019 scenario for clinching the No. 1 seed requires that they win out, beating both the Jets on Sunday and the Miami Dolphins the following week. But that\u2019s not enough. The Chargers must also defeat the Broncos in that final game of the season. If all three of those results happen, the Patriots win the AFC.<\/p>\n<p>The No. 1 seed is important for two reasons. First, it guarantees that the Patriots play all of their playoff games at home. But more importantly, it would exempt the Patriots from playing in the wild-card round, giving them an extra week off between Week 18 and their first playoff game. That\u2019s an extra week for their ballooning list of injured players to get their health back.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Bad News From Los Angeles<\/h2>\n<p>The news out of Chargers practice, however, was not great on Friday. Los Angeles listed four key players as out for the Texans game, and three more as questionable \u2014 a situation that <em>SI.com<\/em> Chargers correspondent Chris Roling called \u201ca disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Chargers and (quarterback Justin) Herbert aren\u2019t strangers to making something from nothing because of the endless barrage of injuries to the offensive line,\u201d Roling wrote. \u201cBut it\u2019s a different beast against a Texans front seven that has made even the NFL\u2019s best look rushed and ineffective, especially lately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Should the Chargers defeat the Texans, their Week 18 showdown with the Broncos becomes a battle for the AFC West division title \u2014 giving Los Angeles every motivation to go all-out to win it. If they lose on Saturday, next week\u2019s game becomes essentially meaningless.<\/p>\n<p>But not for the Broncos, who would need only to win to secure the No. 1 seed. The best news for the Patriots this week, outside of winning their own game against the Jets, would be a Chargers win over the Texans.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots injury report was tough enough ahead of their game against the New York Jets, but there was more bad news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-england-patriots"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New England Patriots injury report was tough enough ahead of their game against the New York Jets, but there was more bad news.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-27T15:48:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648\",\"name\":\"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report - Breaking News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-27T15:48:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-27T15:48:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking News\",\"description\":\"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\",\"name\":\"MrKen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrKen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report - Breaking News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report - Breaking News","og_description":"The New England Patriots injury report was tough enough ahead of their game against the New York Jets, but there was more bad news.","og_url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648","og_site_name":"Breaking News","article_published_time":"2025-12-27T15:48:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"MrKen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrKen","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648","name":"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report - Breaking News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png","datePublished":"2025-12-27T15:48:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-27T15:48:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-england-bau-56.png","width":1080,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=40648#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patriots Get More Bad News, and Not From Their Own Injury Report"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/","name":"Breaking News","description":"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15","name":"MrKen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrKen"},"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40650,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40648\/revisions\/40650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}