Week 4 Patriots vs Panthers: Dont'a Hightower, Marcus Cannon return; David Harris among inactives

In a little more than one hour, the New England Patriots will host the Carolina Panthers for both team’s fourth regular season game of 2017. Recently, the Patriots have gotten healthier and on Friday, for the first time all year, have had perfect practice attendance. However, healthy or not, they still needed to deactivate seven players to get to the 46-man game-day roster limit.

Via the Patriots' Twitter account, those seven players are as follows:

OT LaAdrian Waddle

WR Matthew Slater

RB Rex Burkhead

OT Cole Croston

LB David Harris

LB Harvey Langi

SS Brandon King

While all of the players above were participants in Friday's final practice, some of them were still listed on the injury report: Running back Rex Burkhead was seen as doubtful to play, while core special teamers Matthew Slater and Brandon King were listed as questionable. All three will be out today – and joined by four healthy scratches. Three of them – LaAdrian Waddle, Cole Croston, Harvey Langi – are depth players.

The fourth one, David Harris, is as well and his deactivation shows just how far down the depth chart he has slid. With Dont'a Hightower returning to action today, the team opted to deactivate the veteran. His standing on the roster appears to be in question, especially considering that Shea McClellin is a candidate to be re-activated off injured reserve later in the year.

As noted above, Hightower returns to action today. He is not the only player to come back after an injury-related absence: Starting right tackle Marcus Cannon returns as does cornerback Eric Rowe.

For comparison, the Panthers' inactives look as follows:

WR Curtis Samuel

DE Daeshon Hall

CB Daryl Worley

C Ryan Kalil

OT John Theus

QB Brad Kaaya

DE Bryan Cox