In not even 90 minutes, the New England Patriots will play their fifth game of this year’s regular season, trying to improve to 3-2: coming off a chaotic two-week span that saw numerous Coronavirus-related transactions, the Patriots will host the 1-3 Denver Broncos at Gillette Stadium — a game that normally would have been played last Sunday but had to be postponed to this week.
Before getting ahead of ourselves, however, let’s take a look at the players on both sides who have been declared inactive and will therefore not participate in today’s contest:
Patriots inactives
CB Myles Bryant
DT Carl Davis
QB Brian Hoyer
TE Dalton Keene
RB J.J. Taylor
New England deactivated five players today, with all of them healthy scratches after not being listed on this week’s injury reports. The biggest name among them might be Brian Hoyer: the veteran started the Patriots’ Week 4 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, but was benched after turning the football over twice. Now, second-year man Jarrett Stidham is serving as the team’s backup quarterback behind starter Cam Newton.
Newton, meanwhile, is officially back after having missed the game in Kansas City following his Covid-19 diagnosis. The same goes for cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who did not miss any playing time after testing positive with the game against Denver being postponed from last week to today.
The Patriots’ inactives lists also shows that all of the players listed as questionable on Friday are able to suit up: wide receiver Julian Edelman (knee), offensive tackle Isaiah Wynn (calf) and defensive tackle Adam Butler (shoulder) are good to go. Guard Shaq Mason and linebacker Derek Rivers, meanwhile, are not listed as inactive given that they were moved to the Reserve/Covid-19 list on Saturday alongside running back Sony Michel. All three will be unavailable while not counting against New England’s 53-man roster.
Broncos inactives
LB Jeremiah Attaochu
TE Noah Fant
WR K.J. Hamler
QB Jeff Driskel
DT McTelvin Agim
G Netane Muti
Four of the Broncos’ inactives — Jeremiah Attaochu, Noah Fant, Melvin Gordon and K.J. Hamler — were already known before today. The others, meanwhile, were just added to the list, which also means that quarterback Drew Lock will make his return after having missed the last two games due to injury and being listed as “questionable” heading into the weekend.