RB Rhamondre Stevenson and WR Demario Douglas were two of the five players that the New England Patriots ruled out for their matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers tomorrow on their final injury report of the week. Also ruled out were CB Shaun Wade (illness), WR Kayshon Boutte (shoulder) and OT Riley Reiff (knee). The report was posted to Patriots.com.
Reiff, whose 21-day window to practice was opened on Nov. 15, will not be activated off IR and his 2023 season will end after playing just one game. Boutte had returned to practice in a limited fashion the last two days, but the team was not comfortable enough to dress him this week. Listed as questionable were OT Trent Brown (ankle/hard), DL Christian Barmore (shoulder) and WRs JuJu Smith-Schuster (ankle) and DeVante Parker (knee). Brown has been seeing a decrease in reps as he deals with hand and ankle injuries, while Barmore is dealing with a shoulder. All four were limited in practice today.
LB Chris Board was removed from the list and will play against Pittsburgh tomorrow.
The Patriots are banged up, and Stevenson and Douglas are big losses for them. In addition, Brown, who’s been one of the better offensive tackles in football this season, will likely share reps with OT Conor McDermott as he rests and tries to recover while playing through injuries.
Thursday is a game the Steelers should win over the 2-10 Patriots, especially coming off a terrible loss against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13. We’ll see if Pittsburgh will be able to move on and beat the Patriots on Thursday Night Football.
