New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers will meet at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.
It’ll be a fun matchup, with both franchises searching for an extremely meaningful victory as they each look to take a giant step forward this season. Drake Maye will face his hometown team for the very first time. Bryce Young has another opportunity to build some positive momentum in what has been an up-and-down career thus far.
I’ll be keeping my eye on a few other things, though:
The Patriots and Panthers have almost zero familiarity when it comes to their rosters, which is rarely the case these days.
PatsPulpit’s Oliver Thomas puts together lists of roster ties every week, and there are exactly two heading into this weekend — New England linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson and Carolina cornerback Mike Jackson each spent offseasons with their upcoming opponent before finding success elsewhere and earning deals with their current squads.
The Patriots do have three members of their coaching staff who previously spent time working at 800 South Mint Street, though — tight ends coach Thomas Brown, assistant offensive line coach Robert Kugler and senior defensive assistant Ben McAdoo.
Christian Gonzalez’s return from injury is imminent, and although that was part of our seven storylines last week, we can’t help but include him once again.
Gonzalez was still limited during the first two practices of the week, but we’ve heard that he’s getting closer to being himself.
“It was good to see him out there last week — to get back into the flow of things, get some work,” Patriots cornerbacks coach Justin Hamilton said on Thursday, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “… (It) sounds like he’s starting to feel close to his old self, so hopefully we can get him back to that.”
Gonzalez also seemed perturbed by some folks questioning his commitment amid the recovery process from his injury, so perhaps that plays a role in his gameday status?
We will see…
It’s often said that football games are won in the trenches, but in the case of this game — and more specifically, the Patriots’ offensive line and the Panthers’ defensive line — each side just appears to be in survival mode.
New England will likely be without one of its rookie starters, as left guard Jared Wilson missed each of the first two practices this week with knee and ankle injuries in addition to the thigh injury he’d been dealing with prior.
Ben Brown would slide into that role should there be an absence.
Carolina has the third-fewest quarterback pressures in the league through three weeks (30), and only have a 3.3% conversion rate on turning those pressures into sacks — which is the worst mark in the NFL, per Next Gen Stats.
Princely Umanmielen, a third-round rookie, has their lone sack on the season. Derrick Brown, the club’s best player and one of the best...
