Welp, you spend a good hour this morning writing about how the Pats can manage for a game-plus without Hightower and then Ian Rapoport drops this bomb.
#Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower has a torn pec and is out for the year, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 26, 2017
No other way to cut it, this is a huge blow to Patriots Super Bowl hopes. Between Julian Edelman and now Hightower, it’s hard to come up with a worse scenario that doesn’t involve the quarterback, and given the depth and meaning of all those players, losing your best wide receiver and linebacker might even be worse. At least with Jimmy G there’d be a small element of excitement.
So what now? Is there a trade out there that could help? Are we ready for a whole lot of David Harris? There’s no easy answer as is often the case when you lose a player of this magnitude. As I mentioned this morning, getting Shea McClellin back would certainly help. Then a trio of Harris, McCellan and Cassius Marsh would be serviceable, complimenting Kyle Van Noy, who has shown remarkable progress in recent weeks and is now the de facto leader of the front seven now. Throw in some Trevor Reilly and Marquis Flowers and maybe someone emerges. Is that a Super Bowl winning linebacker group on paper right now though? Ummmmmm….
This offseason I had linebacker near the top of the priority list and the only addition was Harris, late in the offseason. It was a glaring hole that would be easily exposed if something happened to Hightower and, in a surprise to no one, something happened to Hightower. Well, multiple things happened to him, starting in the very first game after he was brought along with kid gloves all summer.
I don’t mean to knock Hightower, it’s how he plays and who he is. The Patriots should’ve seen this razor-thin depth, known his injury history and addressed it. They didn’t, and now they’re going to be forced to lean on Harris, who just last week we all believed could no longer run. The guy’s had a great career and if this was five years ago I might be excited to see him out there more, but now? It’s scary thinking about handing the keys to the defense to an ex-Jet.
My narrative of this season on defense — finding players to replace the clutch players lost — is only more glaring now. This defense has now been stripped of Ninkovich, Long, Sheard, and Hightower. Go back two years and toss in Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins or Akiem Hicks and well, it’s pretty amazing how things have fallen apart. Some were self-inflicted, some were unavoidable because you can’t give everyone monster contracts, and some were just the bad old injury bug variety.
Still, the Patriots could’ve been more proactive and protected themselves far better from this unfortunate turn at a position we all thought BB loved to nerd out on. Aren’t linebackers supposed to be his jam?
Any way you cut it, this defense is a shell of the incredible promise it had just a year ago. Once again, it’s a defensive reset up front. Now, more than ever, the secondary must lead the way. They must buy time for the young guys up front, led by Dietrich Wise, Malcom Brown, Adam Butler and Cassius Marsh, to develop.
The only silver lining for me is that I truly enjoy seeing Belichick when he’s faced with an impossible football challenge. Somehow he’ll pull it together, you just know he will. I don’t know if it will be enough to repeat as Super Bowl champs, but I’m sure the Pats will go down swinging with all they got no matter who or where they’re playing.
