Drake Maye and the Patriots caught a break this week.
As New England heads into a primetime meeting with the Bears on Thursday Night Football, it no longer has to prepare for Montez Sweat, a pass rusher who would have made life miserable for a battered offensive line. Sweat was suspended for two games earlier this week for violating the NFL’s PED policy, which means he will miss Week 6 and Week 7.
That matters for a Patriots group already dealing with injuries up front. Mike Onwenu is out at right guard, and Will Campbell could be sidelined at left tackle for a while. If that wasn’t enough, TreVeyon Henderson is also dealing with an ankle injury, which could make an already shaky run game even harder to get going.
Maye has spent the early part of the season staring down some serious defensive fronts. He opened against the No. 1 defensive line in the NFL in a Super Bowl rematch, then had to deal with T.J.
Watt, Greg Rousseau, and Maxx Crosby. Sweat would have been another major problem in that stretch.
Instead, New England gets a small bit of breathing room.
That’s welcome news for a quarterback who seems to be settling in after a rocky start. The Patriots took a hit over the first three weeks, but a win in Buffalo appeared to spark some confidence back into the building, especially around Maye. They backed that up with a statement win over the Raiders, and now they’re moving into what is being called the easiest stretch of their schedule, beginning with the Jets.
The Bears come into Week 6 at 3-2, and they’ll have their own reasons to make a statement under the lights. There’s also a built-in layer of comparison between the two teams because their starting quarterbacks came from the same draft class, so this matchup figures to carry that conversation for a long time.
There’s another subplot, too. Robert Kraft interviewed Ben Johnson before eventually hiring Mike Vrabel, and plenty of Patriots fans wanted the former Lions offensive coordinator to get the job. Vrabel was Kraft’s choice, though, which puts even more attention on both head coaches when these teams meet.
For New England, though, the biggest development is simpler than any of that: on a short week, Maye and the offense won’t have to deal with Montez Sweat. For a line that’s already beat up, that’s a break the Patriots badly needed.
In Other News...
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Patriots Mourn A Franchise Great Who Helped Shape Their Early Years
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His legacy was already secure in New England by the time he entered the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2011, a fitting recognition for a player who helped shape the teams formative years. Morris also carried a place in league history as the first Patriots player selected to the Pro Bowl after the AFL-NFL merger, another reminder of how long his impact lingered beyond his playing days. [Read more 🡒]