If the Patriots are hiding injuries, they’re probably not doing it by concealing injured players from the official report. Instead, if they’re hiding injuries, they are routinely listing so many injured players that it becomes virtually impossible to know which players are actually injured and which ones actually aren’t.
Or maybe they just have a lot of actually injured players, as they prepare to face the Texans.
On the team’s first postseason injury report, issued 10 days after their most recent game, the Pats have identified 20 players as participating in practice on a limited basis: safety Patrick Chung (shoulder), cornerback Marquice Cole (finger), guard Dan Connolly (back), cornerback Alfonzo Dennard (hamstring, knee), safety Nate Ebner (hamstring), tight end Rob Gronkowski (forearm, hip), tight end Aaron Hernandez (ankle), linebacker Dont’a Hightower (hamstring), defensive end Chandler Jones (ankle), receiver Brandon Lloyd (knee), guard Logan Mankins (ankle, calf), linebacker Jerod Mayo (elbow), center Nick McDonald (shoulder), defensive end Rob Ninkovich (hip), linebacker Mike Rivera (ankle), defensive end Trevor Scott (knee), linebacker Brandon Spikes (knee, ankle), cornerback Aqib Talib (hip), receiver Wes Welker (ankle), and linebacker Tracy White (elbow).
So maybe they’re all injured. Or maybe only some of them are. Either way, nearly half the roster appears on the report.
We’d hate to see how many would have shown up on it if the Pats hadn’t secured a bye.