Patriots officially place receiving leader Kendrick Bourne on injured reserve

A spot on the New England Patriots’ 53-man roster opened after the NFL trade deadline passed quietly.

The organization officially moved wide receiver Kendrick Bourne to injured reserve on Tuesday, according to the transaction wire.

Bourne, 28, went down with a knee injury in the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium. An MRI revealed a torn ACL, ending his season eight games and five starts in.

Ranking atop New England’s offense with 55 targets, 37 catches, 406 yards and four touchdowns, only center David Andrews, quarterback Mac Jones, left tackle Trent Brown and tight end Hunter Henry have played a higher rate of snaps this fall than Bourne’s 73 percent. He stood with a base salary of $4.75 million in a contract year.

“K.B. brought a lot of energy, a lot of juice to this offense and really attacked every day,” Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien told reporters on Tuesday. “I’d only been around him for the seven or eight months that I’ve been here and he’s a great guy and he was having a really good year.”

The 2017 undrafted free agent out of Eastern Washington spent his first four NFL campaigns with the San Francisco 49ers before arriving in Foxborough. In his absence, the roster moves forward with DeVante Parker, Demario Douglas, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Jalen Reagor as well as a recently inactive Kayshon Boutte and Tyquan Thornton on the receiver depth chart.

The Washington Commanders visit Gillette Stadium on Sunday. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. ET.