In a little more than 90 minutes, the New England Patriots will play their 13th game of the regular season — and their second this year against the Miami Dolphins. And while the Patriots won the first of the two teams’ meetings relatively easily, playing in South Florida has oftentimes been tricky for them in the past. Luckily for New England, it will have almost all hands on deck today as a look at the inactives list shows.
Patriots inactives
TE Dwayne Allen
OL James Ferentz
CB Duke Dawson
DT Danny Shelton
DE Keionta Davis
DE Derek Rivers
CB Keion Crossen
While Dwayne Allen will miss his third straight game because of a knee injury, the rest of the Patriots’ inactives are all healthy scratches — including once again three interesting names: trade acquisition Danny Shelton, who is primarily used as a run-stopper at defensive tackle, as well as second-round rookie cornerback Duke Dawson and 2017 third-round pick Derek Rivers.
This also means that cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who was questionable to play after popping up on the practice report on Friday with an ankle injury, will be active. This is obviously great news for a Patriots secondary that is coming off its best game of the season. It will still be interesting to see if Gilmore, as usual, plays 100% of the snaps or if the team opts to give undrafted rookie J.C. Jackson more playing time.
Dolphins inactives
OC Jake Brendel
CB Xavien Howard
QB David Fales
OG Isaac Asiata
OT Zach Sterup
DE Jonathan Woodard
WR Isaiah Ford
The Dolphins’ best defensive back and arguably player, Xavien Howard, was already ruled out for the game on Friday. Meanwhile, ex-Patriot Danny Amendola — who was listed as questionable — will play against his former team.