So the Patriots put running back Shane Vereen on short-term IR yesterday, while reports circulated that wide receiver Danny Amendola is “almost certain” to not play Thursday against the Jets, and no one’s really expecting tight end Rob Gronkowski quite yet.
You know who isn’t bothered by any of that? Tom Brady.
The Patriots quarterback is either using Jedi mind tricks, or he genuinely believes they’re going to be OK with their current scarcity of skill players.
“We’ve got a lot of good players in the locker room,” Brady said, via Zuri Berry of the Boston Globe. “So when people are injured, that’s why you have a deep roster, guys that you’ve got confidence in, that you’ve gained trust in. I certainly have that at the skill position.
“So we’ve got a lot of good running backs and lot of good receivers. We’re trying to do the best we can this week to go out and win a very challenging game against a very good team.”
To recap, they now have a backfield of Stevan Ridley (who was benched for fumbling), LeGarrette Blount, Brandon Bolden and Leon Washington.
If Amendola doesn’t play, they’re down to Julian Edelman and Matthew Slater at wide receiver, along with rookies Aaron Dobson, Josh Boyce and Kenbrell Thompkins.
And if Gronk doesn’t surprise us, and rookie Zach Sudfeld is still bothered by a hamstring issue, they’ll have Michael Hoomanawanui and Matthew Mulligan at tight end.
That group can be described a lot of ways, but “deep” and “good” might not be words anyone else would have chosen.