The Patriots placed offensive lineman Greg Van Roten on injured reserve, the team announced Tuesday.
Van Roten started at right guard, with Mike Onwenu on injured reserve, but he left Sunday’s game in the second quarter with a thigh injury. Walter Rouse replaced Van Roten.
Van Roten, 36, appeared in all three games this season after signing with the team Aug. 18.
He has played for the Packers (2012-13), Panthers (2017-19), Jets (2020-21), Bills (2022), Raiders (2023) and Giants (2024-25). He also had short offseason stints with the Seahawks (2014) and Jaguars (2017) and spent two seasons with the Toronto Argonauts (2015-16) of the Canadian Football League.
The Patriots also announced they have released linebacker Riley Wilson from the practice squad.
Wilson, 24, signed with the Patriots as a rookie free agent on July 22 and spent the first three weeks of the season on the practice squad.
Jaguars cornerback Travis Hunter’s first NFL interception helped Jacksonville beat the Patriots on Sunday, but it also touched off an odd scene on the sideline.
Hunter spun the ball on the ground while celebrating the takeaway and teammate Josh Hines-Allen tried to retrieve it as a souvenir from a Patriots ballboy who had picked it up. Video of the interaction showed Hines-Allen trying to take the ball, which was zealously protected by the ballboy who shouted that Hines-Allen should not touch him. A Jaguars staffer eventually stepped in and the game went on.
During a videoconference on Monday, Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said the team was working to get the ball for Hunter.
“I was just talking about it,” Coen said, via Mark Long of the Associated Press. “I haven’t gotten a clean answer. We’ve been in communication with those guys over there. I think they’ve gotten it sorted out; I can’t say for certain if we got the actual ball or not. I know there was something that went on there. I think it’s all squared away. We’ll get it taken care of.”
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis noted that Hunter “could have helped us out by not spinning the ball and forgetting about it,” but the Jaguars later confirmed that they were able to secure the ball.
A year after finishing second in the NFL MVP voting, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye won’t have to worry about nearly missing out on the award in 2026.
Through three games of the the third season his career, Maye has regressed. Badly.
Last year, he had 31 touchdown passes and eight interceptions. This year, he has one touchdown pass and six interceptions. His passer rating has plummeted from 113.5 to 58.6.
Sunday’s 35-6 disaster in Duval included three turnovers and no touchdowns.
Appearing Monday on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show, coach Mike Vrabel was asked about Maye’s obvious issues with decision-making.
“I think quarterbacks want to make plays,” Vrabel said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. “I think they want to throw touchdowns. I think sometimes when Greg and I go golfing, we really want to make a good score, right? Sometimes we’re so focused on it, we try to choke the life out of the golf club, and we’re squeezing it so damn tight that the ball has no choice but to go sideways. We need to stop trying to choke the life out of every single play. We need to relax. We need to settle in and go play football and not try to force things that aren’t there.”
It seems at this point to be more than bad decisions. Simms explained on Monday’s PFT Live that Maye has developed mechanical flaws, including a flicking of the wrist before the makes his throws. Also, Simms believes Maye is trying too hard to guide his throws, in lieu of letting it rip.
If the Patriots agree with the assessment, it won’t be easy to coach these things out of Maye during football season, when there’s a fresh train always heading down the tracks. And the next stop is Buffalo.
Last year in Week 5, Maye led the Patriots to a win in their final game at the Bills’ old stadium. This year in Week 4, Maye has a chance to reverse a troubling trend that has become a full-blown narrative.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye had an unusual moment on Sunday, when he cocked his arm to throw and his hand came forward without the ball in it.
After the game, Maye had an unusual explanation for it.
"[Center] Jared [Wilson] happened to be bleeding on his hand,” Maye said. “Got the football and was trying to put one to [receiver] Kyle [Wiliams]. And [it] slipped out of my hand.”
It’s a twist on Brucie from The Longest Yard, when he attributed his lost grip on the ball to just eating popcorn. Either way, Patriots fans were likely choking on their popcorn while watching Maye’s latest performance.
The Patriots are now 1-2. And they face the Bills in Buffalo next weekend.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye’s rough start to the 2026 season continued in Jacksonville on Sunday.
Maye lost a fumble in the second quarter of the game and killed the Patriots’ best chance at scoring a touchdown by throwing an interception in the end zone before halftime. His second interception of the game — and sixth of the season — led to a Jags touchdown that made it 28-6 in the third quarter of what wound up as a 35-6 loss.
Maye said the fumble came because center Jared Wilson’s hand was bleeding, but said he still needs to take better care of the ball and that he has to snap himself out of the general funk he’s been in this season.
“I think it’s disappointing,” Maye said. “I think the ball starts rolling that way, we can’t get out of our own way, and I can’t get out of my own way personally. I gotta look myself in the mirror and take this as a turning point. It’s Week 3, and at the same time we have to have some fuel and realize that what we’re doing out there offensively it’s unacceptable. It’s been unacceptable for three weeks. I gotta start with myself, lead these guys, and get back after it.”
A trip to Buffalo to face the 3-0 Bills is hardly the ideal place to start the journey, but it is the one that Maye and the Patriots will face this week.
