FOXBOROUGH - The Kayshon Boutte crowd is feeling themselves today.
A.J. Brown left his first game as a Patriot with what is reportedly a high-ankle sprain, though Mike Vrabel said there are more tests to be done.
“I don't know if he'll be available going forward here for the next week,” he added. “But we'll see. I know he'll do everything that he can to get back as quickly as possible. And once we get the reports, then we'll figure out what the treatment plan is.”
Brown left the game during the opening drive of the third quarter, and the Patriots' passing offense missed their top target. Drake Maye had been 3-of-4 targeting Brown, and also drew a 35-yard defensive pass interference penalty on a flea flicker intended for the physical wideout. That set up the team’s only touchdown on the very next play.
“A.J.’s going to fight hard to get back,” Maye said postgame. “He’s a competitor. He’s going to help this football team a lot this year.”
High-ankle sprains can be troublesome, and linger long after a player is cleared to play. Milton Williams missed five games last season with one, and while the two men play different positions, the lower half is the foundation for any player. Obviously, this is far from ideal, and thrust what Eliot Wolf termed the “Jaylen Reed trade” back into the forefront.
As part of the trade, the Patriots surrendered Boutte, who the organization deemed expendable after signing Romeo Doubs and trading for Brown. While the latter looked to be settling in last night, the former, Doubs, was the intended target on Maye’s first interception and had a critical (and bad) drop just before the quarterback threw his second pick. Hard for many not to second-guess (and plenty first-guessed) that trade, although Boutte likely would have been inactive against the Seahawks. However, presumably, there is now a big void in the offense, and the Pats will need their guy, Kyle Williams, to assume a bigger role, and for Doubs to look like the player we saw the final two weeks of training camp. If not, the cries for Boutte will only grow louder.
Meanwhile, there’s been plenty of critique for Josh McDaniels’ game plan. The Pats leaned heavily on bigger personnel and were very run-heavy on early downs, despite a 29% success rate. That number, were it to hold up over an entire season, would have been dead last in 2025. I asked Vrabel if there were any discussions to pivot, rather than slamming into a brick wall (and that’s what Seattle’s front is).
“I think that there are always those conversations, and I think that when there's not success, or is it one guy - did we like to play? Was there a better cut? There's all these different conversations that happen, and I think you saw us hit some runs and thought we ran the ball better in the second half,” Vrabel said. “So again, it wasn't good enough, but I think the ability to be able to do that and have some of those runs gives us an opportunity to protect the guys up front, so it doesn't become a drop-back passing game. I felt like we did protect better, and I thought there were a lot of strides in that regard. Not perfect, but I thought that we were able to at least create some pockets to give us a chance to throw from. And then there's times where we have to be better, and we have to pick up pressure or pick up a game, and not get picked.”
Understood, and when you go back to how upset Vrabel was that the Pats