Injuries are a part of the National Football League. They always have been. They stretch your personnel and examine your skills at roster-building. Three games into the season, the New England Patriots have absolutely been put to the test.
A few trades have rearranged the NFL's backup quarterback ranks, but the dust has mostly settled. From a mix of recent first-round disappointments, aging vets, and young project types, here is how the league's QB2 ranks look for the 2026 season.
Maye has been one of the league's worst starting quarterbacks since he tossed the first of three interceptions in the fourth quarter of New England's Week 1 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 9.
The New England Patriots‘ biggest issue from their Week 3 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars is their offense’s inability to punch the ball into the end zone, having to settle for only 6 points.
We're already through three weeks of the 2026 NFL season, meaning we have a big enough sample size to begin to panic about some underperforming teams and players around the league.
NFL stars can't play forever, and retirement is coming sooner than later for some of the league's top players. These 25 players could call it quits following the 2026 season.
There weren't many positive takeaways from the New England Patriots' 35-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 3. Everything seemed to be a negative, from the offense's three turnovers to the defense not being able to stop a nose bleed.
Maye, who finished second in 2025 MVP voting behind Los Angeles Rams star Matthew Stafford, has been responsible for numerous head-scratching decisions.
New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will be the first to tell you: In the National Football League, character matters … a lot. As a player, Vrabel, a huge piece of New England’s first three Super Bowl titles, oozed it.
The New England Patriots did not simply lose 35-6 to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. Quarterback Drake Maye committed three turnovers, including two interceptions, as an offense that reached the red zone three times left without a touchdown.
The New England Patriots officially elevated S Mike Brown and DT Jeremiah Pharms Jr. to their active roster for Week 3’s game. Pharms, 29, went undrafted out of Friends University in Wichita, Kansas before eventually being drafted by the USFL’s Pittsburgh Maulers in 2022.
The New England Patriots officially placed LB Quintayvious Hutchins on injured reserve on Friday, per the NFL Transactions wire. Hutchins, 23, is from Bessemer, Alabama, but attended Boston College for several seasons before being selected in the seventh round by the Patriots in the 2026 Draft.
Michael Onwenu suffered an ankle injury in Week 2, and he is not expected to return to the Patriots’ lineup until at least late in the year. A right guard replacement needs to be identified, and several candidates are in the running.