FOXBORO, MA — Patriots nose tackle Chad Eaton is expected to miss Sunday’s game against the Jets after suffering a knee injury on practice Thursday.
Belichick said during his press conference this morning that the injury occurred at the beginning of practice yesterday.
“At the beginning of practice it just tightened up on him,” said Belichick. “We had it checked out and it seems like a relatively, I hate to say minor because anytime you have an injury it is only minor if it is not yours, but this shouldn’t be too long.”
Eaton was already at the hospital at the time of the press conference, but Belichick wasn’t aware of exactly what type of procedure the veteran nose tackle was going to have done. He did feel however it wasn’t a season ending injury.
“They are going to do some kind of procedure and take care of it,” said Belichick. “I mean it is not an ACL or anything like that it is not a season ending deal. It is something that is obviously keeping it from functioning smoothly. The decision was made to just to do it and get it over with and get him back, rather than try to manage it and go along and hope that it clears up.”
“If he could play with it he’d play with it. I’m sure he would. I don’t think there is any doubt about that.”
So far through the first six games Eaton has totalled 26 tackles and has done a good job helping the Patriots shut down their opponents running attack [they’ve yet to allow a 100yd rusher]. Belichick said that Eaton will definitely be missed.
“Chad has done a solid job for us,” said Belichick. “He is a big guy and you need that in the middle of the line. [You need] somebody that is big and can move the pocket and not get driven off the ball, and he has done a good job of that for us.”
Veteran Henry Thomas is expected to start in place of Eaton during Sunday’s game against the Jets.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
