Patriots tease return of silver pants ahead of Bills game

It appears the New England Patriots’ silver pants will be making a comeback, at least for one game.

The team posted a short video on its social media accounts on Saturday with the caption “Are those… Silver pants???” — a hint that the garment will return for the upcoming matchup against the Buffalo Bills. If so, the Patriots will have mixed up their look in Week 7 by reintroducing silver pants for a second straight season.

The clip itself shows the entry plaza to Gillette Stadium, plus a pair of silver pants hanging from the lighthouse.

The Patriots wore navy jerseys with silver pants from 2000 to 2019, including in two of their six Super Bowl wins. Following the departure of long-time starting quarterback Tom Brady, however, the team made a change: the jerseys were modified and the silver pants scratched in favor of an all-navy look that had already been worn as part of the NFL’s Color Rush initiative.

Now in their fourth season, the Patriots have only gone back to silver pants once: they donned them in a Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears last fall — a game that saw New England lose 33-14, with a convalescent Mac Jones getting pulled in the early second quarter.

The Patriots will be hoping for better results this time around, even though the odds are not in their favor. At 1-5, DraftKings Sportsbook has them listed as 7.5-point home underdogs against the 4-2 Bills.

The game versus Buffalo will mark the second time this season the Patriots have gone away from their standard look. They also wore their red Pat Patriot throwbacks in a Week 2 loss to the Miami Dolphins; they will go back to that ensemble for their Week 13 bout with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Kickoff between the Patriots and Bills at Gillette Stadium is set for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 22.