Patriots News 12-28, Players To Watch Against The Jets
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Good morning. Here is your Patriots news, 12-28, and NFL notes this week. We all hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas surrounded by loved ones. And an early Happy New Year, 2026. What better way to end 2025 than to beat the Jets, and hopefully clinch the AFC East, with a Buffalo loss to Philly?
The Patriots have won 12 games this season, far above what most prognosticators had them at this spring.
However, at 12-3, the AFC East is still well within the team’s grasp. They have to beat the Jets today and Miami next week. After the big win last Sunday night over Baltimore, they will have a hard time fielding the game-day active roster, since seven players were ruled out.
And key members of both the offense and the defense are missing. Robert Spillane, Harold Landry, Mack Hollins, Kayshon Boutte, Khyiris Tonga, and Jared Wilson will all miss today’s game. Milton Williams was not activated from IR. Pop Douglas and TreVeyon Henderson are questionable.
With a win today, the Patriots would run their road record to 8-0, the only team currently undefeated on the road. This would come in handy down the road in the playoffs if they have to go to Denver or elsewhere.
***On a side note, thanks to Ian Logue for filling in for me here last Sunday. My family and I were on a long-awaited Christmas cruise to the Caribbean. It was well-needed and enjoyed. Last Sunday night, I was in a sports bar, chock-full of Ravens’ fans. Needless to say, there were a lot of sad faces on the Baltimore side after the game… priceless after the talking they did all game.
Mack Hollins: The New England Patriots placed receiver Mack Hollins on injured reserve, the team announced Saturday, ending his regular-season and putting his playoff availability in jeopardy. It is a big blow for the Patriots’ offense.
Hollins did not practice on Wednesday because of an abdominal injury, and on Thursday was ruled out for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets. His IR designation means he will miss at least the next four games, with his earliest chance to return being in the AFC Championship Game.
Hollins had 46 receptions for 550 yards with two touchdowns this season, both totals third-best on the team.
In a corresponding move, the Patriots signed DT Jeremiah Pharms to the active 53-man roster.
Stefon Diggs: Diggs had138 yards on 9 receptions, with three of those receptions for 39 yards coming in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Diggs needs just 131 yards in the final two games to reach 1,000 yards on the season, which would be a remarkable achievement considering that he tore an ACL last October while a member of the Texans.
Diggs had a big game against the Jets the last time the two teams met, a Patriots 27-14 victory in Foxboro. He snagged nine passes for 105 yards in that game. Diggs leads the Patriots with 76 catches for 869 yards on the season.
Patriots No Huddle Podcast: Mike, Derek, and I, should all be back together later tonight as we’ll try to get the post-game podcast in the books after the game this afternoon.
We tried to schedule a podcast this week after the big win over the Ravens, but it didn’t quite work out. But we’ll have that andthe Dolphins preview sometime later this week, for the final regular season game.
Please check it out. And be sure to like, share, and leave us a review.
Russ Francis/Chuck Fairbanks: The former Patriot tight end and head coach should be in the Patriots team Hall of Fame, and the fact that Francis isn’t is an absolute travesty. Francis and the Raiders’ Dave Casper changed how teams used the tight end position.
This will be displayed in our Sunday posts until it happens. Casper is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Francis’ numbers stand up well against Casper’s, yet he isn’t even in the team’s HOF.
So, the Patriots are a banged-up bunch heading into the Meadowlands to take on the Jets today. With a playoff spot already clinched, now they have two more goals for the regular season: winning the division and getting a shot to nab the top seed. The first is very doable: win their final two games against the Jets and Dolphins, and they win the AFC East.
Winning the AFC’s top seed will require some help. They need Denver to lose next Sunday against the Chargers while winning their final two games.
With that in mind, here are (from a Patriots’ perspective) the players to watch in today’s game.
Kyle Williams: The Patriots’ rookie wide receiver will be looked to down the stretch with both Mack Hollins (IR) and Kayshon Boutte (concussion) are out this week. Plus, with Pop Douglas questionable with a hamstring injury, the Patriots wide receiver group has taken a hit.
Williams has only seven catches, but has 189 yards and three touchdowns, including the highlight reel 37-yarder he had last week in Baltimore.
The last time the Patriots played the Jets, they tried to get Williams involved and he struggled mightily to get on the same page with Drake Maye. He’ll get another opportunity today.
TreVeyon Henderson: The rookie running back suffered a head injury and was placed in concussion protocol this week. However, he was a full participant on Friday and should be cleared to play today.
Henderson could see an uptick in passing-game snaps, trying to isolate him on a linebacker this week to help take up the slack of missing both Hollins and Boutte. Could Efton Chism, who has not been targeted for a single pass this season, also see some action?
Austin Hooper: The Patriots may opt for more two-tight-end looks this week (12-personnel) with Hooper and Hunter Henry to take some of the onus off of the wide receiver group.
Hooper hasn’t seen a lot of snaps lately, but he did have two catches for 34 yards against the Ravens.
Drake Maye: We always include Maye in our players to watch, and after the fourth-quarter heroics on Sunday night in Baltimore, he will be dealing with a roster missing some key pieces.
Maye torched the Jets’ zone coverages last time the two teams met, so you would believe that the Jets would opt for more man coverage schemes this time around.
If the Patriots can give Maye time to throw, I expect that he’ll have another big day throwing the ball against a struggling Jets’ defense. Speaking of which, the Jets are giving Chris Harris a look as their defensive coordinator after firing Steve Wilks.
Expect the unexpected this week, but Maye is at least in the running for the MVP this season for a reason. He should be primed for another big game.
The schedule this week had three games on Christmas, and obviously, the two for Saturday.
One surprise was how Kansas City hung with Denver right up to the final 4th down incomplete pass in the end zone. Divisional games are tough, something that should resonate with the Patriots today.
Now we’ll see how the rest of the schedule goes.
Christmas Football:
Dallas over Washington 1-0
Detroit over Minnesota 1-1
Denver over Kansas City 2-1
Sunday Day Games:
LA Chargers over Houston
Green Bay over Baltimore
Cincinnati over Arizona
Pittsburgh over Cleveland
New Orleans over Tennessee
Jacksonville over Indianapolis
Tampa Bay over Miami
New England over NYJ
Seattle over Carolina
NYG over Las Vegas
Buffalo over Philadelphia
Sunday Night Football:
San Francisco over Chicago
Monday Night Football:
LA Rams over Atlanta
Last Week 13—3
2025 Season 164—75—1
2024 Season 204—68
2023 Season 178—94
2022 Season: 178—92—2
2021 Season: 183—88—1
2020 Season: 169—86—1
2019 Season: 162—93—1
“Just trying to get back into it. I think he’s working hard. I would say that it’d be tough to see a lot just from the way that the practices were structured, but he’s working hard to get back, and again, it’s good to see him out there with the team. That’s just the first step of it.“
Mike Vrabel was asked about activating Milton Williams from IR.
“Well, up front, I really enjoy watching their offensive line. I think it’s a good group; it’s a very young and talented group on the outside. I love the play demeanor of the guys inside, with [Josh] Myers, [Joe] Tippmann, and [John] Simpson. They come off the ball, they’re good in their combinations, so they really allow the runners, but mostly Breece [Hall], to get going. There’s not a whole lot of first contact, and he’s able to – he averages over 4.2 yards a carry. So, I like that group; they moved us last time.
“They ran the football against us. The recipe for winning is not going to be to run for 65 yards and give up 140 yards on the ground. I’ve told the team that multiple times. So, athletic, defense, young, playing some young guys.
“Obviously, with [Will] McDonald [IV] and him continuing to get better, and his length, Jermaine Johnson, [Jowon] Briggs, and then obviously, [Harrison] Phillips is the steady in case. And their linebackers are fast. They run – they’re fourth-tackled for loss percentage. So, if you don’t come off on them, or you don’t get somebody up to them, they’re going to make the tackle, and they’re going to be there in a hurry. So, we’ll have to do a great job of trying to get somebody on those linebackers.
Mike Vrabel was asked about the Jets and how they’ll challenge the banged-up Patriots this week.
“Great scheme, excellent players, very good returners. We’ll have to cover with a purpose this week.
“Obviously, they have a running back that really runs through arm tackles, and has done a great job of doing that. [Adonai] Mitchell, obviously, is a great punt returner, but those skills have translated over to the kickoff return. So, as much as they kick away from Kene [Nwangwu], now Mitchell’s getting a lot of those, or [Isaiah] Williams is getting a lot of those.
“So, we’ll have to make sure that we’re good, that the space is limited, and again, one guy’s probably not going to be able to do it and get him down. Special teams have been a very, very strong point for these guys. Faked a punt; punt returns have been a weapon: 14-yard average, two touchdowns, one called back. So, these are to make sure we’re matching everything they do from a special teams standpoint. Critical phase.”
Vrabel was asked how he feels about theJets’ STs units, especially their kickoff return team.
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“Somebody asked me what success looks like, and I said, ‘Yeah, you can judge it by wins and losses during the season, but success for me in the offseason is going to be that the players believe in what we’re doing, and they believe in the message, they believe in the teaching, and they believe in the connections that we’re making.’” — Mike Vrabel
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Win the last 2 games and realize a huge accomplishment of winning the AFC east over BUFF, and sporting a gaudy 14-3 final record. Anything else (a playoff win maybe) is “gravy”. The Pats are already in the “exceeded expectations” bucket regardless. Of course we want more, but a great season is already banked.