Patriots Didn’t Get Healthier, They Just Bought Drake Maye Some Time

The New England Patriots went into Saturday with two holes on offense and one problem they could not solve. Reggie Gilliam and Greg Van Roten came off injured reserve, which covered the first two. TreVeyon Henderson went on it, which guaranteed he would miss at least four games and reopened the third.

So the Patriots head to Munich with more bodies on the line and less depth at running back. How those two changes balance out will shape what the offense can do against the Detroit Lions in a Week 10 game with real playoff stakes.

Van Roten Gives the Passing Game Another Option

Of the two returns, Van Roten’s matters more for the passing game, and the reason is timing. He has not played since Week 3, when a hamstring injury ended a run of starts at right guard in Weeks 2 and 3, and he is now expected to slide to left guard against the Lions.

That slide is necessary because the line around him kept falling apart. Ben Brown is out with a knee injury. Mike Onwenu is expected to miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. Alijah Vera-Tucker is still on injured reserve.

With those players sidelined, New England is set to deploy its sixth offensive line grouping in 10 games: Will Campbell, Van Roten, Jared Wilson, Matt Pryor and Morgan Moses.

Six combinations in 10 games is not a plan. It is a running response to bad news, and every new grouping costs the offense something that never shows up in a box score. Communication. Timing. The trust Drake Maye has in the pocket in front of him.

Van Roten cannot rebuild all of that by himself, but he is the one lineman in the group who has already seen the fronts the Lions will run, and that familiarity is worth more than his age suggests.

Reggie Gilliam Could Change the Run Game

Gilliam fills a different gap, and it is one the Patriots created for themselves when they signed him. They brought him in as a free agent, lost him to a knee injury for five games, and now get back a fullback on a roster that has been playing without one.

That absence has been expensive in a specific place. The Patriots rank 26th in EPA when Maye works from under center, and they run play-action on 21.9 percent of their snaps, ranking 24th in the league. The two numbers are connected. Play-action only works when a defense believes the run, and a run game without a lead blocker is easier to disbelieve.

Gilliam gives the Patriots an option they have not had. Put him in a two-back set and he has a defined job, which is to lead through the hole, occupy a linebacker and buy the half-second that makes the fake worth running. It will not fix the whole offense. It is, however, a cheap way to make the under-center package look like something a defense has to prepare for.

TreVeyon Henderson’s Absence Changes the Backfield

Henderson’s move to injured reserve tightens the backfield at the worst possible time. He had been dealing with an illness and was already ruled out for Sunday, so the designation changes less about this week than about the next month, which is at least four games.

Behind Rhamondre Stevenson, that leaves Corey Kiner and Lan Larison. Stevenson is listed as questionable with a knee injury, but he practiced in a limited capacity and traveled to Germany. The Patriots offered a second signal by not elevating a running back from the practice squad. That decision only makes sense if the team expects him to play.

That leaves New England’s backfield plan looking precarious. They have Stevenson in some capacity, Kiner and Larison behind him, and zero safety net. If Stevenson is limited, Gilliam’s return stops being a luxury and becomes a structural necessity.

The Patriots could deploy Gilliam as a dedicated lead blocker while letting Kiner and Larison absorb the carries. That creates a far sturdier foundation than asking Maye to beat pressure with his arm and his legs on the same down.

The Patriots Need Their Quarterback Protected

None of these moves touches the part of the problem that worries the Patriots most, which is the pocket Maye will stand in on Sunday. He goes into the game with Stevenson questionable and Walter Rouse still in concussion protocol, on a roster that has been losing skill players all season.

The stakes around that matchup are simple. The Lions sit at 6-2, while the Patriots are 5-4. A team with a winning record can survive one bad matchup, but it can’t survive asking its quarterback to be the entire offense against a defense of Detroit’s caliber. And as the injury report makes clear, the support around him is thinner than that 5-4 record implies.

Van Roten should help keep the pocket cleaner. Gilliam should help the run game hold up its end. Those are real improvements, and they arrive at the two spots where the offense has been weakest.

The Last Word

The Patriots did not get healthier on Saturday. They got more options, and they got them where the offense had run out of them. Van Roten gives Maye an experienced guard on a line that changes every week. Gilliam gives the running game a lead blocker and gives the under-center package a reason to exist.

Henderson’s absence takes away a running back, but the decision not to add one suggests the team believes Stevenson can carry the load. Against the Lions, that belief will be tested more than the roster moves themselves.

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