The Patriots got some unfortunate injury news coming out of their Week 1 loss to the Seahawks.
After leaving Wednesday night's season opener in the third quarter, the Patriots placed WR A.J. Brown on injured reserve. Brown will be eligible to return this season following a minimum four-game absence but will miss games against the Steelers, Jaguars, Bills, and Raiders over the next four weeks. The soonest Brown can return will be against the Jets in Week 6 (Oct. 18). In a corresponding roster move, the Patriots signed veteran DT DaQuan Jones, who will take the roster spot created by placing Brown on injured reserve.
Losing Brown for an extended period so early in the season is a major blow to the Patriots offense. In Week 1, the star wideout had three catches for 26 receiving yards while also drawing a 34-yard pass interference penalty that set up the Pats lone touchdown vs. the Seahawks. Although it was a small sample size, Brown played 30-of-31 snaps as an outside receiver, where his ability to win 1-on-1 matchups would theoretically raise the ceiling of the offense.
Without Brown for the next four-plus games, New England will likely turn to veteran Mack Hollins and second-year WR Kyle Williams at the "X" receiver spot. Hollins had a complementary role as a base receiver in the Patriots heavy personnel groupings before Brown's injury, then assumed Brown's role in the offense in the second half. Patriots QB Drake Maye clearly has chemistry with Hollins, who is a bigger target with a good grasp of the system after spending multiple seasons with Josh McDaniels. In Week 1, Maye went to Hollins for a key 4th-and-9 conversion late in the game vs. the Seahawks, which feels notable now.
Although the Patriots will lean on Hollins to replace Brown, it also opens the door for young wideouts Kyle Williams and Efton Chism III to play larger roles. In terms of role, Williams is more directly tied to Brown than Chism. The 2025 third-rounder showed off his specialty of winning on go routes in the preseason, catching long touchdowns of 69 and 45 yards over the summer. Williams's release quickness and vertical speed make him difficult to match in single coverage and there are now more snaps available for the Patriots to test the opponents' outside cornerbacks a few times a game with Williams's field-stretching ability.
That said, Chism was a healthy inactive as the sixth receiver in the Patriots wide receiver room in Week 1. Now that Brown is out, Chism will likely be active moving forward. The second-year wideout mostly plays in the slot, where he's backing up DeMario Douglas, but Chism has played in Hollins's spot in the past, so the trickle-down effect could get Chism on the field in a blocking role with Hollins now being the primary "X" receiver: Hollins steps into Brown's role and Chism fills the base snaps Hollins was previously playing. He could also factor into kickoff returns if New England doesn't want to risk putting Williams back there.
When the Patriots speak to the media next on Monday, one would expect them to respond to Brown's injury with an "all hands on deck" mentality. You can't replace a player of Brown's caliber with one player. They're going to need Hollins, Williams, and the whole wide receiver room to step up in Brown's absence. From this perspective, it's a huge opportunity for Williams to show that he can make an impact by replacing some of the explosive plays that they were expecting to get from Brown in the early part of the season.
As for the Patriots newest addition, the team hosted the 34-year-old Jones on a free-agent visit during training camp. The former Bill and Titan didn't sign with the team initially but will now bolster New England's interior defensive line depth. Like many other current Patriots, Jones played for head coach Mike Vrabel in Tennessee for three seasons (2018-2020). Jones had 3.0 sacks, 25 quarterback pressures, and nine run stuffs in Buffalo last season.
After losing NT Khyiris Tonga in free agency, DT Cory Durden took on a larger role in the defense. Durden is a solid contributor but it never hurts to have proven depth. In Week 1, Seattle rookie Jadarian Price averaged over five yards per rush with a 13-yard run on the Seahawks opening drive on an outside zone cutback right up the gut. The Pats ability to clog rushing lanes in the middle of the line has been a question mark since camp, when they had some issues stopping the run in joint practices with the Colts and Eagles.
In his last season in Vrabel's defense, Jones played over 62 percent of his snaps at nose tackle, either straight up over the center (zero technique) or shaded into the A-Gap (one technique). The Pats typically base out of 3-4 fronts with a true nose tackle between two base ends, a role that Durden (previously Tonga) has played since the start of camp, with Milton Williams and Christian Barmore on either side of him. The Pats also have their bigger defensive tackles rush over the guards in their four-down nickel fronts, so one would expect that Jones will do a little bit of both as another sturdy option at 6-4, 320 pounds.
The Patriots are fortifying the trenches on defense by adding Jones to the fold, but he's unfortunately taking a critical piece of their success in Brown's roster spot.
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