Dominique Easley Sits Out Practice; Apparent Leg Injury

The Patriots might need that extra time this week. With New England's last day of practice before getting the long weekend off, the hopes were that everyone could make it to the finish line healthy.

Apparently that's too much to ask for.

Multiple reports of Dominique Easley "walking gingerly" surfaced as the rookie defensive tackle had to stop in the middle of warm ups. Easley left the field during the warm-ups for the fifteen minutes that were available to the media and sat with the trainers on the injury cart. The rest of the team continued to run through their drills.

There are numerous concerns about Easley's knees, so hopefully his removal from practice is mostly a precaution. He'll have a long weekend to recover and hopefully he'll be back in business starting next week.

Easley has primarily been a sub-rusher on the interior, and has moonlighted as a defensive end in recent weeks. The emergence of Akeem Ayers has allowed Easley to remain on the inside.

Defensive end Chandler Jones was also missing from practice.