FOXBOROUGH — In his last comments before opening the season on Sunday against the Raiders, Mike Vrabel said cornerback Christian Gonzalez will be out and tackle Will Campbell will be listed as questionable.
Alex Austin will see an increased role with Gonzalez out.
"I think Alex will – Double A will play. I think Marcus [Jones] will play. Everybody's got to be ready to go," Vrabel said.
On Campbell, I saw him walk through the locker room today and he looked fine. Had a compression sock on his left foot but didn't appear to be limping.
Vrabel also confirmed that Jared Wilson will start at left guard.
"Well, he's worked hard and competed," he said. "Again, we're going to end up playing different combinations of guys, but Jared will be there Sunday. The other guys will be ready to go in there. I think the more he plays, the better he'll get and improve and work and figure out the tricks of the trade as it goes along."
Other topics Vrabel touched on:
• Bill Belichick banning Patriots scouts: "That's an individual choice and we'll cross that bridge when we start looking at players. I want to focus on our football team, and that's their prerogative to make the decisions they feel like are best for them. And then we'll have to find other ways to get the information for any players that we want to look at at North Carolina."
• I asked Vrabel about dropping his last three season openers with the Titans, any lessons learned:
Q: Mike, you lost your last three season openers in Tennessee. Any sort of common thread there? Anything that you adjusted for coming into this season?
MV: No, just have to play better. Missed a field goal. Got boat raced by Arizona. Just play better, take care of the football, win the second half, things like that. [That's what I'm] focused on. You look at everything, every game, and you want to win them all. A couple plays in every game. I don't know who the third one was – Giants, we missed a field goal. I don't know what else.
Q: Saints.
MV: Close one. Couldn't stop them at four minute. Turnovers in the red zone. That’ll do it to you.
Final injury report:
