New England Patriots: Danny Amendola Returns to Practice
By Nick Ziegler
The New England Patriots have returned to practice on their bye week in the NFL Playoffs, and a key player has returned to practice.
Since Week 13, the New England Patriots have been without wide receiver Danny Amendola due to a high-ankle sprain. With the Patriots being comfortable with their position in the AFC, there was never any rush to bring him back early.
On Wednesday, Amendola returned to practice in full pads, and will likely be ready to go for the AFC Divisional Round. This is certainly good for the Patriots, who have been a bit banged up at wide receiver lately.
With Amendola out, the Patriots turned to Michael Floyd to replace him. Amendola and Floyd are very different receivers, but it appears that the Patriots will have them both ready for the next round of the playoffs.
Here's Amendola running through a positional drill pic.twitter.com/jAoU7KZOUR
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) January 4, 2017
This season, Amendola has totaled 23 receptions, 243 receiving yards, and four receiving touchdowns. After a very good season in 2015, the numbers are down for Amendola this season. That can mostly be credited to the Patriots having a lot of weapons on offense. Also, they have been more committed to running the football.
Danny Amendola is back at practice after missing four weeks with an ankle injury. Tom Brady, Malcolm Mitchell, Cyrus Jones are absent.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) January 4, 2017
Having Amendola back and healthy will be very important for the Patriots in the playoffs. While Amendola is healing up, rookie wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell missed Week 17 against the Dolphins, and also didn’t practice on Wednesday.
There is still plenty of time for Mitchell to heal up before next weekend. As of now, it appears the Patriots will be ready to go on offense. With his full complement of weapons, Tom Brady will be seeking another Super Bowl ring.