Week 12: Patriots Injury Update

The Patriots have already named four of their receivers "Limited" in practice. Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Taylor Price, and Matthew Slater have been noted as "questionable" during the week and, on Friday, Chad Ochocinco added himself to the list. Ocho was limited in practice with a hamstring injury, which means that four (Welker, Branch, Ocho, Price) of the Patriots top five receivers (Edelman) have been on the injury list this week.

Hamstrings are a bad injury for receivers as it affects their stride and their ability to run fluidly. Price has been hampered with a hamstring injury all season. If Ocho is occupied with his hamstring, maybe Price will see the field more often. Then again, if Price's hamstring is a both, then maybe the Patriots will have to resort to Tiquan Underwood.

The Patriots need to take advantage of the Eagles' weak secondary who may not have two of their top three cornerbacks on the field. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie returned to limited practice on Friday, much like how Devin McCourty practiced last Friday, while Nnamdi Asomugha was held out of practice.

Eagles WR DeSean Jackson returned to practice, while WR Jeremy Maclin was held out, as was QB Michael Vick. Jackson is returning from a foot injury, so you can be sure that his speed and agility will be impacted, at least a marginal amount.

I believe that the Patriots have been using the past few weeks to heal up their players as they head into the final stretch and there will be a decrease in numbers on the report in the next week or two as the team gears up for the final stretch of the season.