3 things to look for in New England’s preseason matchup vs Panthers
This week of joint practices between the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers has been full of drama, with multiple fights breaking out between the two teams and multiple players being released or deactivated by the Patriots.
Although New England only had to release or deactivate three players to get to the 85-man roster maximum by Tuesday’s deadline, they’ll need to get rid of five more of them by next Tuesday, August 23, to get down to the 80-man maximum.
With that next deadline fast approaching, Friday night’s preseason matchup between the Panthers and Patriots could indicate who will be on the unfortunate end of those upcoming roster moves, as well as who may be sliding down the depth chart of their respective position group.
Here are 3 things to look for during that game that could be topics of interest.
Expect to see a bunch of different faces in the secondary
New England was already thin at secondary coming into the season with the loss of top cover corner J.C. Jackson in the offseason and no real player in place to succeed him. Moreover, two of the Patriots’ three roster moves this week involved placing corners Malcolm Butler and Joejuan Williams on season-ending injured reserve.
While neither of these players would have likely received substantial playing time during the regular season, Butler was seen by many to be a very solid depth option at that position. The loss of both him and Williams leaves the team with some holes to fill in those depth options.
New England currently has 17 corners and defensive backs listed on their official roster. While some of them are surefire locks to make the 53-man roster (Devin McCourty, Jalen Mills, Adrian Phillips, etc.), many others are either rookies or young players looking to secure a role with the team. Expect Coach Belichick and company to be constantly switching out their secondary pieces throughout the game to see what value they have in the young guns who are trying to make the team.
Playing time for Kendrick Bourne?
Barring an extreme circumstance, it is unlikely that Bourne will be a part of the roster cuts before the start of the regular season. However, multiple reports this week have suggested that he has not been performing well in training camp thus far.
For at least one round of 11s in red zone, Kendrick Bourne was running with Brian Hoyer — not Mac Jones. The WR has had a quiet camp and got ejected yesterday. KB was 2/3. Short gains. No TDs.
— Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis) August 17, 2022
While it is unlikely that Bourne would play more than the first half of the game, an appearance in the game at all would be significant due to the fact that he did not play a snap in New England’s first preseason game of the season.
Hopefully, Bourne just needs some game reps to get back up to speed, as he seems to currently be the No. 2 receiving option for second-year quarterback Mac Jones coming into the regular season. It would be a tough blow on the offense to see his playing time regress compared to last year.
Penalties, ejections, and physicality
As I mentioned above, these last few days of joint practices between the Patriots and Panthers have included large fights and players getting thrown out of practice for participating in them. While both Belichick and Panthers Head Coach Matt Rhule seem to be focused on getting those emotions under control, it will be interesting to see whether they boil over into Friday night’s matchup.
Preseason games are generally not too physical as, while players want to show off their skills and play well, they don’t want to get hurt before meaningful games can even be played. However, given the events that have unfolded in Foxborough this past week, we could see some more intensity brought to the game than we would in other preseason contests.
As always, it will be important to both teams that neither squad suffers any devastating injuries. However, given the seemingly endless scuffling that has happened all week, that issue is not off the table.
