Pats Pulpit
The writing was on the wall, and on Saturday it was made official: Jahlani Tavai has been activated from injured reserve to the New England Patriots’ 53-man roster.
The linebacker was forced to start the regular season on IR after sustaining a calf injury during organized team activities in early June. This meant that he had to sit out at least four games before being eligible to return, and the team wasted no time: he returned to practice on Wednesday and was immediately listed as a full participant.
Three days later, his stint on the reserve list has officially come to an end. Here is what this means for the Patriots.
Before he went down with his calf injury during OTAs, Tavai saw regular practice opportunities with the starting defense. Serving as the top off-ball linebacker next to free agency pickup Robert Spillane, he was poised for a big role on the team’s new-look position depth chart.
His injury did alter the timeline a bit, but now that he is back in the fold the group looks like this:
Linebacker (5): Robert Spillane (14), Jahlani Tavai (48), Christian Elliss (53), Jack Gibbens (51), Marte Mapu (15)
Spillane remains the undisputed LB1; he is the team’s on-field signal caller and a three-down contributor from the linebacker position. The other spot, however, should look quite a bit different moving forward. With Tavai in the mix, Christian Elliss in particular might see his snaps decrease — a process that already began given his inconsistent play as the Patriots’ LB2.
The Patriots view Tavai as more than just a traditional off-ball linebacker, but rather a player they can employ in a hybrid role both in terms of alignment and situation. Tavai being activated therefore increases New England’s general flexibility up front.
“I think he plays with good technique. I think he can play multiple spots,” head coach Mike Vrabel said on Friday. “I think he’s an instinctive player. I think he sees the field. I think he understands different concepts. He’s a veteran player that’s played in multiple spots, so there’s a versatility there. I like his fundamentals. He’s done a lot of different things in other places that he’s been and here.”
While he mostly will be in the the spotlight due to his defensive contributions, Tavai also projects as a valuable piece of New England’s special teams operation. He offers quite a bit of experience, after all, having played more than 1,000 snaps in the game’s third phase since his arrival in 2021.
How Tavai will be used in his fifth season with the organization, and first under head coach Mike Vrabel, remains to be seen. However, it would not be a surprise if he rivaled his 2024 output: he ranked sixth on the team with a special teams playing time share of 43.7 percent, and fourth with six tackles — all while seeing action on five units.
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