The Patriots activated wide receiver Brandon Tate and tackle Mark LeVoir in anticipation of its game Sunday, according to Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com.
Tate was on the non-football injury list for the first six weeks of the season, while LeVoir was on the physically unable to perform list.
Levoir, who got a three-year contract in August, will likely serve as the team's swing tackle with starter Matt Light out Sunday. Tate is an intriguing talent that many saw as a possible first-round pick before a torn ACL and a positive marijuana test crushed his stock.
Tate could immediatley help on returns, especially with Laurence Maroney likely to have his biggest role yet at running back. Considering New England's lack of depth out wide, he'll be a player to watch at wide receiver the rest of the season.
Patriots activate two before game in London
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on October 24, 2009 6:28 PM ET
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27 Comments 
Latest stories in: Latest News and Rumors, NFL Mobile Exclusives - Transactions, New England Patriots, Top Stories
Latest stories in: Latest News and Rumors, NFL Mobile Exclusives - Transactions, New England Patriots, Top Stories
Wasn't Tate the fastest receiver coming out of this year's draft? I thought I read that somewhere.
I want some beef chow mein for dinner tonight. It's off to Lee Ho Fook's.
Injuries are one thing. Trades, activations, cuts are totally different.
Since becoming a regular here, it's hard not to notice how active the Patriots are with personnel changes week-in and week-out. Constantly looking to improve their team.
Am I wrong or have they always been that way?
BasicInstinct, it's pretty much always been that way since the Belichick Era began.
The Patriots live and die with the play of Tom Brady.
All the rest including Belichick's supposed coaching genius is just BS.
i thought the patriots live and die in bellicheat not telling anyone how injured sammy and fragile fred are......
i want to know who leaked edelmen had a broken arm
Citizen...you might have a point...if it weren't for them going 11-5 last year without Brady. Good try though. I love all you haters who make outrageous claims without anything to back it up...
CitizenStrange,
What happened last season when Brady was lost for the year 8 mins into the season? The Patriots won 11 games and didn't need to "live by the play of Tom Brady"....
The Patriots live and die with the play of Tom Brady.
All the rest including Belichick's supposed coaching genius is just BS.
Really? The Pats went 11-5 last season with no Tom Brady and a QB who had never played in the NFL. Have any other teams pulled that off? If that's not due to coaching, what else could it be? 11-5, dude! Think about it.
"The Patriots live and die with the play of Tom Brady.
All the rest including Belichick's supposed coaching genius is just BS."
I hate that people rip the crap out of Brady constantly, but when anyone praises Belichick, they start saying it's all Brady's work instead. Make up your mind. They're both future HOF's, and rightfully so. Suck it up.
Was Tony Dungy crap because it was all Peyton Manning? No, and I can say that whilst hating the Colts. It's called respect. Hate the Pats all you want, but they're good and you know it.
and his hair was perfect.
Belichick got caught cheating. No way around it. He CHEATED. He should have been banned from the league for life along with anyone who had anything to do with it.
It will be a disgrace to let a CHEATER into the hall of fame, and a slap in the face to every man already there who got there by playing by the rules.
Skol Vikes - Hate to burst your happy little buble but you might want to wake up and do a bit of reading up into the NFL.
The NFL named a Trophy after the Godfather of NFL Cheating with the practice going back more than 50 years.
http://www.thesportgallery.com/sport-stories/1967aug-nflspy.html
Citizen Strange - would it make you feel a little better if Belichick went 11-5 with a QB who hadn't been a Starting QB since HIGH SCHOOL?
JARED ALLEN got caught cheating. No way around it. He CHEATED. He should have been banned from the league for life along with anyone who had anything to do with it.
It will be a disgrace to let a CHEATER onto an NFL field, and a slap in the face to every man already there who got there by playing by the rules.
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citizen strange, your a moron. learn your nfl history. take a look at belichick's history before he went to NE. All he does and ever has done is win.
that's right.
those 11-5 pats who were just a brady or so away from making the playoffs.
"The Pats went 11-5 last season with no Tom Brady and a QB who had never played in the NFL. Have any other teams pulled that off? If that's not due to coaching, what else could it be? 11-5, dude! Think about it."
Yep. Big Ben's rookie year in 2004, 3rd stringer, never played in the NFL, had to take over due to the Maddox injury and won 13-0 regular season(team went 15-1). AND made the playoffs, which the Pats* didn't do with their 11-5 last season. (Oh, yeah, and that's one of the years that the Pats* illegally taped the Steelers in the AFCC game -- cheated their way to the SB again.)
As a Patriots fan who has watched every game they have played in the last ~10 years, that team in 2008 didn't win 11 games because of genius. It won 11 games because it played one of the easiest schedules in the history of the NFL. Remember those 11-5 dolphins? Look where they are now.
The fact of the matter is, if Matt Cassel went anything but 11-5, he wouldn't even be in the league.
That team with Tom Brady would have won 16 games that year, maybe 15. But 16 + 3 in the playoffs, was VERY possible. Just look at the hype going into the season. People were talking about a repeat. (minus the Super Bowl loss)
I'm not saying Belichick doesn't have an important role on the Patriots, but Tom Brady is clearly a special talent that drives that team harder and deeper than all but a very very select few do. (Yes, I'm talking about Peyton Manning...)
As far as the entire spygate thing goes, I'll just let that reside with the rest of the NFL coaches that were "victims" of Belichick....
Oh wait, none are speaking out. Why? I wonder...
The fact of the matter is that if it were such an atrocity, someone would have stepped out of line with the NFL and commented on the situation [and got fined]. Obviously, this guy is either really likable and people were willing to accept the mistake or he's a cheating a**h*** and people just couldn't throw the first stone.
Personally, the more I think about it, spygate was less about spying and more about disobeying Roger Goddell and his mighty memo. It should be called Memogate.
Wasn't Tate the fastest receiver coming out of this year's draft? I thought I read that somewhere....
Tate was unable to work out at the combine due to his knee injury, so whether or not he has the fastest straight line speed of any WR drafted is an unknown. Hopefully he can help out on special teams, run his routes properly, get separation, and catch the ball, no matter what his speed.
At citizen strange... interesting that you say that when, the Pats actually were 11-5 last year with no Tom Brady.
I guess that would be living wouldn't it... without Brady?
If anything has become funny, it's how Manning is like the real Golden Boy of the NFL and it's fans and Brady is the villain who plots with Coach Bill how to ruin football.
Everyone was yapping about them running the score up against the Titans but I guarantee if that had been Peyton everyone would have just said "wow another great accomplishment for Peyton"
Funny how people always used to think of Brady like that until 2007. If you want to hate someone, hate Bellichick not Brady. He goes in and does his job without being an arrogant jerk like many people in his position would be.
He has the dream of every man out there. A sports icon, gorgeous wife, more money than he knows what to do with.... yet he still seems to be pretty humble.
Leave the guy alone honestly, quit being so bitter.
I agree with you prophet. I mean technically it would be called cheating, but I found it funny when all the other coaches were asked about it they seemed pretty uncaring about the matter as if to say maybe they were involved in similar activities.
It's the reason people cover their mouths when they call plays and so on. Every team takes every chance they get to grab a competitve edge. Taping practices is a joke honestly, and the fact is that they still need to go out and compete with the freakishly talented players on that field.
Spygate was one of the most blown out of proportion events in sports and honestly just tarnishes the rep of one of the best coaches of all time and his team as well, whether you wanna admit it or not.
Spyboots: I tip my cap, you're absolutely right. That was a hellava fun season to watch, even for a Pats fan.
For all of you 'cheating' fools... if you think the taping of defensive signals had anything to do at all with the Pats' success... how do you reconcile 2007 in your tiny minds?
Greatest offense in the HISTORY of the league and we KNOW they weren't taping jacks*it. How do you explain it???
If your asnwer is because they had Brady in his prime, Moss and Welker... well, you are making my point. I guess it's the players, huh?
Get over yoursleves. You sound like driveling idiots when you claim cheating at every turn. You know you do to, it's pathetic.
The Bronco's cheated by sneaking around the salary cap when they won the SB. They were fined heavily for it. So I guess you all hate them to?? No?? Teams cheat. Every time a player puls a illegal move on pupose they are cheating and hoping they get away with it. Spygate was just an emotional trigger because the Patriots are so good and it involved cameras, which hits a nerve with people.
Someone correct/inform me on this -but my understanding of the taping incident was this.
It is perfect legal for teams to film the opposing team, but only from the sidelines.
It is common practice for teams to film opposing signals (from the sidelines) and try to garner what advantage they can.
What the Belicheck did wrong was twofold.
1) He filmed from the stands (not allowed) (but is(?) from the sidelines.
2) He continued the practice even after a memo from the commish stating the practice of filming outside of designated areas was to stop (and from my understanding, THIS was the reason he was fined so heavily).
Yes, I am a Patriots fan (have been since the 80s), but I'd genuingly like to know if my understanding is correct.
Knowing the truth wont sway a Pathaters opinion one iota, but this was not exactly bugging the locker room or drugging the gatorade (or player tampering).