First, N'Keal Harry sustained a concussion thanks to a late buddy pass from Cam Newton.
Now, Julian Edelman had a procedure on his balky right knee and will at least miss Sunday's Last Stand In Buffalo.
End of the road? Maybe. Newton, who hasn't even thrown to his open receivers of late, will now likely look at a receiver group that consists of:
WR1: Damiere Byrd
WR2: Jakobi Meyers
TE1: Ryan Izzo
WR3: Gunner Olszewski
TE2: Dalton Keene/Devin Asiasi
WR4: Isaiah Zuber
(You can discuss practice squad WRs Mason Kinsey and Kristian Wilkerson on your own time.)
To a lot of people, that's a horror show on par with anything showing on AMC this week in advance of Halloween.
Me? I say bring it on. I am so sick and tired of watching this slow, tired, injured and molasses receiving group that I'd actually be excited to watch this group against Buffalo — if the forecast wasn't calling for rain and wind that should give the Patriots a running edge against a Bills defense that can't stop the run.
Harry can't do anything except run 10 yards out and catch a ball that's thrown right to him. The YAC he showed in college was, obviously, a Pac-12 fallacy. They might as well try to transition him to tight end now because at best he's a big slot.
And Edelman, who is one of the great Patriots of all time, hasn't been right back to training camp when he was given practices and reps off. He can't push off his right leg, which eliminates his best skills against man coverage. Maybe he has a chance to salvage the last year-plus of his career with whatever he had done to his knee. That's good, because he's a liability right now on the field.
Give me Byrd, Meyers and Olszewski. At least they can really run, which automatically makes the Patriots better and faster.
Yeah, they're not household names and who really knows if they can play? At least they'll get somewhere quickly and put a little stress on the defense. When Harry and Edelman were out there, you'd swear the cornerbacks were yawning at times. Put that on top of Newton taking his pretty little time getting to his drop and then his progressions, and holy cow the Patriots were slow and plodding.
Don't take my word for it, listen to NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell on Newton and the Pats’ passing game against the Broncos on The Fantasy Points Podcast:
This was a slog-watch. I mean, they look sluggish, they look slow, they have no juice, no explosive element, Newton was bad, he has to get quicker, he has to get more decisive with his elimination and isolation, he left throws on the field, he’s not seeing things, it’s … bad. It was a slog to get through that game.