An incredibly frustrating year continued for tight end Jacob Hollister on Friday when the youngster was ruled out for Sunday's regular-season finale against the Jets with what the team is calling a hamstring issue.
Hollister, who had an excellent spring, appeared poised to make the leap to a consistent offensive presence this season. But the 25-year-old has been limited to just eight games this season. On the year, he has four catches for 52 yards.
The rest of the Friday injury report can be seen below. I'll be interesting to see how the Patriots handle Cordarrelle Patterson -- the returner/receiver/running back sustained a knee injury late in last Sunday's win over the Bills, and was seen gingerly limping around the locker room after the game. Could the suddenly important Patterson sit on Sunday with an eye toward the postseason? We shall see.
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Earlier this week, you said on the radio that you plan to play next year. Can you elaborate on that?
"Yeah, I don’t want to elaborate much. This week’s the one that matters and that’s what we got to do – take care of business this week"
Rob Gronkowski spoke yesterday about dealing with mental challenges this year. How have you noticed him handle some of those challenges and have you tried to help him in any way in terms of dealing with some of that stuff?
"Yeah, he handles it well and I think for all of us, over the course of 16 weeks, it’s not all going to be perfect. It very rarely goes where you just breeze through. It’s a challenging, tough grind and mentally, emotionally, you have to be in a good place. Gronk’s fought hard, he’s been available a lot. I think we’re all looking forward to this week."
Is there a stat in terms of evaluating quarterback play you pay attention to more than any other?
"Not really. I’m not really a big stat guy. I’m into wins. Wins is the one and that’s what we’re here for. There’s a lot of ways you can evaluate stats and so forth. Winning the game is what’s most important."
More updates throughout the afternoon...