Sony Michel among six Patriots to open training camp on the physically unable to perform list

Earlier today, the first wave of players reported to the New England Patriots’ training camp: the team’s rookies arrived at Gillette Stadium to go through medical examination, as did veterans coming off injury. Six members of that latter group were subsequently placed on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list and are therefore deemed not yet ready to join their teammates on the practice fields.

According to reports by ESPN’s Field Yates and Mike Reiss, the following players were moved to the PUP list today:

RB Sony Michel

WR Demaryius Thomas

OT Cole Croston

DE Deatrich Wise Jr.

CB Ken Webster

SS Nate Ebner

New England also decided to place one player on the non-football injury list, as first reported by Reiss:

OT Yodny Cajuste

The biggest two names on the list are undoubtably Sony Michel and Deatrich Wise Jr. While the former underwent a knee arthroscopy earlier this offseason, the latter was spotted in a walking boot presumably because of some procedure on his ankle. Neither of the two participated in New England’s mandatory minicamp — and now they are on their way to miss the start of the world champions’ training camp as well.

Meanwhile, Demaryius Thomas and Yodny Cajuste popping up on the list is hardly a surprise either: Thomas tore his ACL last December, while Cajuste underwent quad surgery in March. Both are still rehabbing. The remaining three players — Cole Croston, Nate Ebner, Ken Webster — are dealing with unknown issues at this point in time. Ebner was a no-show during minicamp as well (just like Thomas and Cajuste too); Croston and Webster were present.

Players can be activated off PUP at any time and are then no longer allowed to rejoin the list. This means that Michel and company could be back on the ‘normal’ roster as early as tomorrow. However, they could also remain on PUP until roster cutdowns: at that point, they would be moved from the current active/PUP list to reserve/PUP and would have to sit out at least the first six regular season contests.