A pair of key Patriots are dealing with injuries ahead of Super Bowl 2026.
New England starting linebackers Harold Landry III and Robert Spillane did not practice on Friday, leaving their status for the big game up in the air with a little more than a week to go before kickoff.
Landry, a 2021 Pro Bowler, missed the AFC Championship game against the Broncos with a knee injury, which has continued bothering him this week.
Spillane left the AFC title game with an ankle injury in the first quarter and didn’t return.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel didn’t have much to say about the pair of linebackers with some time left for them to get healthy before next Sunday’s game.
“They didn’t practice today, and I don’t know what’s going to happen nine days from now,” Vrabel told reporters Friday.
The defensive injury concerns come as the status of Patriots quarterback Drake Maye gets more worrisome by the day.
Like Landry and Spillane, Maye was not at practice Friday, raising some alarms around the team.
Maye sat out with what Vrabel described as a combination of “injury and illness.”
“We’ve had a lot of guys over the last month or six weeks here with illness,” Vrabel said. “Trying to do what’s best for the player and the team, trying to take care of guys, not spread anything.”
Though the team did not practice on Wednesday, Maye was listed as “limited” on New England’s injury report with a right shoulder issue in a hypothetical scenario in which the team did take the field.
Maye appeared to land hard on his right throwing shoulder after being tackled in the third quarter during the win on Sunday over Denver.