Xavier Newman-Johnson and Benton Whitley were back on the New England Patriots’ practice squad Friday after each spent Week 7 on a standard elevation against the Chicago Bears.
The 30-24 loss at Soldier Field gave both players their first action of 2026. Newman-Johnson took on protection duties on three extra points and one field goal, stepping in as a 6-foot-2, 297-pound interior lineman behind a starting five that was already dealing with absences.
Right guard Ben Brown was out with a knee injury, and left guard Alijah Vera-Tucker was placed on injured reserve before the 8:15 p.m. ET kickoff because of a hamstring injury.
Newman-Johnson, 27, joined New England’s practice squad in September after a visit, and his time with the Patriots has now brought him to 26 games in his NFL career. He first entered the league in 2022 as an undrafted free agent with head coach Mike Vrabel’s former Tennessee Titans, spending parts of two seasons in the AFC South.
After that, he moved on to the New York Jets’ practice squad, 53-man roster and injured reserve before being released and ending up in Foxborough. The Baylor product has played 338 downs on offense and 72 downs in the kicking game, with five starts on his résumé.
Whitley handled 13 special-teams snaps on the Midwest road trip, working across kickoff coverage, kickoff return and punt return. That accounted for 46 percent of the workload in that phase. Like Newman-Johnson, he signed to the Patriots’ practice squad in September.
A Massachusetts native and Holy Cross alum, Whitley came into the league with the Los Angeles Rams as part of the organization’s undrafted class of 2022. Since then, he has had stops with the Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers through 2025.
His most recent training camp came with the Cleveland Browns before he was waived at the league’s cutdown deadline at the end of August. Through seven games in his career, the 6-foot-4, 255-pound linebacker has one fumble recovery and one pass defensed, along with 16 snaps on defense and 87 on special teams.
Both players still have two standard elevations available before a 53-man contract would be needed to get them on the field again.
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