Sportsnaut
The New England Patriots have to be feeling good right now. The team is 5-2 and coming off a dominant win against the Tennessee Titans, where Mike Vrabel spent six years.
Now, the Patriots are preparing for a stretch of winnable games. In the next five weeks, only one of the teams on the Patriots’ schedule currently has a record above .500. In Week 8, the Patriots are taking on the Cleveland Browns who enter the weekend at 2-5.
The Patriots shouldn’t need a ton of help to win this game, but they did get some good news on Friday. Safety Kyle Dugger is the only player listed on the Friday injury report. The defender has a questionable designation due to a knee injury.
Defensive back Craig Woodson and edge-rusher Elijah Ponder are the only players who missed practice this week. Woodson had an ankle injury and Ponder had a knee injury, but both practiced fully on Friday and will play on Sunday.
Losing Dugger would have been a bigger loss last week considering starting safety Jaylinn Hawkins was also out. Hawkins isn’t on the injury report for Week 8, though, so it will be nice to have a reliable starter back. Edge-rusher Anfernee Jennings and defensive back Charles Woods are the others who missed last week with injuries and are set to return this weekend.
Meanwhile, the Browns are very healthy for this time of year as well with only two players on their injury report. Defensive lineman Adin Huntington and tight end David Njoku are both listed as questionable with a concussion and knee respectively.
This will be the second weekend in a row that Vrabel is playing against a team he previously worked for. While Vrabel didn’t have a head coaching job last year, he did spend time with the Browns as coaching and personnel consultant.
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