The Patriots are preparing for their first Monday Night Football matchup since the 2022 season, and several players will carry injury designations into Monday night’s game vs. the Giants.

On Saturday, the Patriots ruled out G Jared Wilson (ankle) and special-teams ace Brenden Schooler (ankle) while OLB Harold Landry III (knee) and DT Khyiris Tonga (chest) are officially questionable for Monday night. For the Giants, QB Jaxson Dart has cleared concussion protocol and will start for New York. However, the Giants ruled out OLB Kayvon Thibodeaux (shoulder).

Starting on offense, New England will start its third different offensive line combination of the season vs. the Giants after rookie LT Will Campbell (knee) and G Jared Wilson (ankle) sustained injuries in the Patriots win over the Bengals last week. Campbell was placed on injured reserve earlier this week, meaning he’ll miss at least the next four games, while Wilson remains on the active roster with what’s reportedly a high-ankle sprain for the third-round guard. It’s unclear when the Patriots could get their rookie linemen back, so for now, at least, they’ll need two new starters against a formidable Giants defensive front.

On Wednesday, head coach Mike Vrabel confirmed that OT Vederian Lowe will start for Campbell at left tackle. Lowe finished last week’s game after Campbell exited, allowing two hurries on 16 pass-blocking snaps. The fourth-year pro also started 13 games at left tackle for the Patriots last season, so Lowe has NFL experience on the blindside. At left guard, the expectation is that top interior backup Ben Brown will step in for Wilson. Brown was also the next man up in Cincinnati when Wilson was injured on the third play from scrimmage.

Although they were a part of an offensive line that struggled last season, Brown and Lowe are entering a much different situation with the Patriots at 10-2. New England’s coaching staff, led by offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and offensive line coach Doug Marrone, is held in high regard in terms of aiding the offensive line with the help of chips, extra protectors to double-team bigger threats, and moving the pocket for QB Drake Maye. It’s also worth noting that Maye will have his full complement of weapons at his disposal. The O-Line might be banged up, but Maye and the skill players can hopefully up their games to help out the line.

From this perspective, we could see more max-protection schemes in which the Patriots send only two or three receivers into the pattern. The Giants enter the week as the last-ranked run defense in yards per carry (5.9) and EPA per rush (+0.19). In theory, if New England could find a run game and then script heavy protections off play-action to push the ball downfield, they could attack a weakness in the Giants defense and keep Maye protected with six or seven blockers accounting for New York’s talented pass rush.

Still, the Patriots rookies are a huge reason why the offensive line has improved this season. The Patriots are 20th in pass-blocking win rate and 15th in run-blocking win rate compared to 31st and 32nd in ESPN’s win rate metrics in 2024. The Patriots will need Brown and Lowe to step up for however long they’ll need to start, while it’ll also be interesting to see how McDaniels and the coaching staff scheme around having two backups on the left side.

Moving over to the Patriots defense, Landry III (knee) and Tonga (chest) are two key pieces on the defensive front whose status are uncertain for Monday night’s game.

Landry III has been managing a knee injury over the last few weeks, as he’ll carry a questionable designation for the second consecutive game. Landry III playing through a knee injury could explain his recent dip in production. In the first five games, the Pats captain logged 3.5 sacks and 22 total pressures, but the veteran edge rusher only has two sacks and 14 total pressures in the last six games, a split that also coincides with an injury scare in New Orleans (Week 6). To his credit, Landry III is toughing it out through his knee injury, but the late bye week might be coming at a good time for the 29-year-old following Monday night’s game.

As for Tonga, the big nose tackle’s absence loomed large in the win over the Bengals, where the Patriots allowed their first 100-yard rusher of the season (Cincy RB Chase Brown). This season, New England is allowing +0.02 rush expected points added when Tonga isn’t on the field, compared to -0.10 EPA per rush when Tonga is on the field – a huge difference. Tonga also plays a role on offense as a short-yardage lead blocker, causing a significant ripple effect to the Pats run defense and goal-line offense, which went 0-for-2 in Cincinnati last week.

Along with their banged-up nose tackle, standout DT Milton Williams (ankle) is also on injured reserve. Williams will miss his second of at least four games on Monday night. Alongside star DT Christian Barmore, the Patriots leaned on defensive tackles Cory Durden (33 snaps), practice-squad elevation Jeremiah Pharms Jr. (20 snaps), and DT Eric Gregory (18 snaps) against the Bengals. One would expect a similar rotation vs. the Giants, with Tonga hopefully available as well (Tonga only played 12 snaps on defense vs. the Bengals).

Lastly, special teams captain Brenden Schooler will miss just the second game of his career on Monday night due to an ankle injury. Replacing the All-Pro’s impact while covering kicks and punts won’t be easy, while it also complicates the depth chart since Schooler is on five different special-teams units. It’ll be worth monitoring how effective the Patriots are at covering kicks, especially punts, without their leading tackler and best gunner on special teams.

The next step for the Patriots will be practice squad elevations, which don’t need to be made official until Monday afternoon rather than the day before the game. One would expect that Pharms will be elevated for the second consecutive week, while another spot could go to a special teams contributor to help fill the void left behind by Schooler. New England will then host the Giants on Monday Night Football at Gillette Stadium at 8:15 p.m. ET.

DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don’t necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer