Patriots regulars not expected to play Friday night
FOXBORO -- The Patriots have one final preseason tune-up Friday night against the Titans. But don't expect to see New England's regulars in Tennessee.
While many coaches see the last preseason game as a "dress rehearsal" for the regular season, ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss posted on X that Bill Belichick is not approaching Friday night's game that way. So chances are Mac Jones, Rhamondre Stevenson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Matthew Judon and most of New England's other starters won't be taking the field against the Titans.
It makes sense, especially on the offensive side, given the issues along the New England offensive line. The Pats are down two starters with Mike Onwenu and Cole Strange both dealing with injuries (Onwenu was just taken off PUP on Wednesday), and Jones spent most of his three series against the Packers trying to avoid the Green Bay pass rush. He was sacked twice, including a strip-sack on his final snap of the game, and took a number of other big hits.
With the line struggling this week in practice, it's probably best to keep Jones on the sidelines until the regular season arrives and the Patriots potentially get some reinforcements along the line.
But that also means that Jones and New England's offensive starters only got three series in the preseason. Will they be ready when Sept. 10 against the Eagles rolls around? That will be a big debate over the next two-plus weeks.
Tune in to Friday night's Patriots-Titans preseason game on WBZ-TV -- your television home for the New England Patriots. Pregame coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. with Patriots GameDay, with full analysis after the game on Patriots 5th Quarter. You can also tune in to McCourty "Twincast" streaming on WBZ.com!
