Injury update: Christian Barmore’s MRI comes back clean, rookie avoids major injury

The New England Patriots received added injury to the insult of their 33-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday when defensive tackle Christian Barmore left the game with a knee injury. Less than 24 hours later, it looks like their young rookie avoided anything major.

After seeing Barmore be carted off of the field and initial reports saying that he had trouble bearing weight on his leg, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport has reported that the MRI done on Monday came back clean, with Barmore avoiding any major damage to the knee.

This is as positive an outcome as New England could have hoped with their first playoff game coming just six days following the injury. Barmore’s practice status for the week has yet to be determined, but New England has allowed for some players to miss the week and still play of Sunday, most notably wide receiver Kendrick Bourne following his stint on the Covid-19 list.

Barmore played 58 percent of New England’s defensive snaps in the regular season and averaged 46 percent in their two meetings with the Buffalo Bills. His emergence as New England’s top interior pass rusher was one of the most notable developments throughout their seven game winning streak from October to December.

If he does miss New England’s wild card matchup with Buffalo, the Patriots have seen practice squad defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale come on in recent weeks as a pass rusher and could look to him to replace some of Barmore’s production.