Patriots To Run Their Starters Out On Saturday
As reported by myself on Thursday, the New England Patriots are expected to have several key starters to make their preseason debut this Saturday against the Houston Texans.
This will be preseason game 2 for the Patriots, historically preseason game 3 is the dress rehearsal, but it is looking like game 2 will be just that this season.
I would expect the starters to go the entire first quarter against the Texans. Tom Brady and other key members of the starting unit should be in the starting lineup after a bad week of training camp down in West Virginia.
It is unclear how many of the starters will make their preseason debut. But one could imagine Stephon Gilmore getting a look after sitting out of Wednesday’s training camp on what appears to be a day of rest ahead of playing in the game.
Rob Gronkowski will be an interesting player to watch in terms of playing or not playing. In recent years the all-world tight end has sat out preseason games due to his long injury history. But Gronk has had a few dropped balls across training camp and the coaching staff might put him in there to get some looks.
An area to look for outside of chemistry between Brady and the receiving core is the defensive line. The d-line has seen major injuries with Rivers and Wise both suffering injuries. This comes just weeks after Rob Ninkovich walked away from football and into an early retirement.
A likely scenario to fix the d-line depth issue is a midseason trade similar to what Bill Belichick did several years ago when he bolstered the secondary depth by trading for Aqib Talib.
The Patriots take on the Texans in Houston at 8:00 pm. The game can be viewed locally on either WBZ in Massachusetts or MyRITV in Rhode Island. For a complete list of the broadcast information click this link.
For Pawtucket Red Sox fans who normally watch Saturday night games on MYRITV, you can still catch the game on the radio or on MiLB.TV. But unfortunately, they will not be broadcasting on MYRITV due to the Patriots game.
