After a shaky start, the New England Patriots took care of business against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
Though he wasn’t caught saying it on the sidelines, Sam Darnold was once again seeing ghosts against New England, as he finished 16-of-33 for 172 and three interceptions, one of which JC Jackson returned for a touchdown.
It was a dominant defensive performance from the Patriots, who improved to 5-4 and one game back of Buffalo in the AFC East.
All things considered, the Patriots being smack in the middle of the AFC playoff picture is really all fans could ask for through nine games with a rookie quarterback in Mac Jones running the offense.
Having said that, New England is churning out wins in spite of some players who haven’t shown up at all this season. Now that we’ve arrived at the halfway point of the year, we thought it’d be a good idea to shine on a light on these no-shows.
3 Patriots who’ve contributed almost nothing in 2021
3. Jalen Mills
The Patriots’ decision to give Jalen Mills a four-year, $24 million contract ($9 mil guaranteed) in free agency was head-scratching at the time, and it’s looked like a miscalculation through the first nine weeks of the season.
The only reason Mills didn’t land higher on this list is because he’s actually offered more than nothing. By that, we mean 28 tackles and three pass breakups.
Outside of that, he’s been a disaster in New England’s secondary, which has surprisingly held up well without Stephon Gilmore after a rough start.
For context, Mills has allowed quarterbacks to complete over 60% of passes thrown in his direction, per Pro Football Focus. As a result, those quarterbacks flaunt a 118.5 passer rating against him. If you thought it couldn’t get any worse than that, what if we told you he’s conceding 12.3 yards per reception?
It’s not that Mills is just getting beat. He’s getting beat for big plays. Remember the Cowboys’ walk-off win in overtime at Gillette Stadium a few weeks back? Mills was cooked by CeeDee Lamb on the game-winning score.
The 27-year-old still has plenty of time to turn it around, but he’s been undeniably one of the Patriots’ most disappointing performers this year.
2. Chase Winovich
We feared that Chase Winovich would struggle for playing time in 2021 after the Patriots overhauled their defensive front in the draft and free agency, and so far, those concerns are holding true.
Winovich missed most of training camp and the preseason with an undisclosed injury, and he’s been buried on the depth chart as a result. He was available at the start of the season, but played just 19.3% of the defensive snaps from Weeks 1 through 6. That included a zero-snap showing against Dallas in Week 6.
That was Winovich’s chance to make his mark on New England’s defense, and he failed to do so, as he managed just seven tackles and one QB hit before landing on injured reserve with a hamstring issue a few weeks ago.
That’s all Winovich has contributed this season. At this point, it’s tough to envision him having any kind of future in Foxborough. His struggles against the run have rendered him a pass-rushing specialist and nothing more.
In 2019 and 2020, that was enough for Winovich to make an impact. With guys like Matt Judon, Josh Uche, Christian Barmore, Deatrich Wise and Lawrence Guy holding down the fort in that regard, though, Winovich has become an afterthought.
1. N’Keal Harry
Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by N’Keal Harry. We better see a lot of hands, because Harry surely duped a lot of fans into thinking 2021 would be his breakout year amid reports of his resurgent training camp.
Given what he showed (or didn’t show) over his first two seasons, we were reluctant to buy into the hype. However, we had a glimmer of hope that Harry would at least form into a semi-reliable piece in the passing game.
Instead, Harry, who requested a trade during camp, has been invisible in the Patriots’ offense. Yes, the 2019 first-rounder missed the fist few games on IR, but he’s currently lagging behind Rhamondre Stevenson, James White and Brandon Bolden in both targets and receiving yards.
In five games, Harry has five catches for 77 yards. Folks, Jakobi Meyers has five less targets than Harry has receiving yards. Hunter Henry has as many touchdowns as Harry as receptions. What more needs to be said?
We presumed Harry would be in line for an increased role after Kendrick Bourne was benched last week for dropping a TD and committing a fumble. Bourne played just 33 snaps (50%) on Sunday and Harry … missed out with a knee injury.
It’s been the same old story with Harry, and fans are surely wondering why the Patriots held onto him at the trade deadline.
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