The New England Patriots were largely injury-free for the first half of the season, but the bug has hit them hard over the last few weeks. Milton Williams was placed on IR after the Jets game with a high ankle sprain, a game Austin Hooper missed entirely.
Their Week 12 matchup against the Bengals saw several other players go down, including All-Pro special teamer Brenden Schooler. In that same game, both Will Campbell and Jared Wilson sustained injuries that would see them miss time.
In their absences, Vederian Lowe and Ben Brown have stepped in. While each has extensive starting experience from the 2024 season, neither was expected to get much action in 2025. Brown started Week 4 in place of Wilson, who was out with an injury, but aside from then, the Giants' game marked both their first starts of the season.
The offensive line is as confident as ever despite recent injury setbacks
The line held up nicely against one of the league's better groups of pass rushers. The Giants were missing former No. 5 overall pick Kayvon Thibodeaux on Monday, but Brian Burns and Abdul Carter were still available.
Dexter Lawrence is one of the league's best defensive tackles, and even Rakeem Nunez-Roches is having the best pass-rushing year of his career.
Despite this, the Giants managed just three sacks with a Patriots' line that was missing two starters. On the unit's confidence, Lowe spoke about how important Drake Maye's faith in the group is, and how his confidence "never once wavered" when Campbell and Wilson went down.
#Patriots LT Vederian Lowe: "Drake has never once wavered confidence in anybody on the (offensive) line. ... And that gives us a lot of confidence in ourselves. We can go out there and perform knowing that 10 has our back. There's nothing better than that."
— Andrew Callahan (@_AndrewCallahan) December 2, 2025
📸: @AP pic.twitter.com/YeIPJXHUX3
Ben Brown was New England's ninth-highest graded player against the Giants, and Lowe didn't allow a single pressure against Brian Burns, one of the league's top sack artists. The former Panther has 13 on the year, second only to Myles Garrett.
Each player has the chance to cash in this offseason. In the past, we've seen spot starters on playoff teams get big money if they have a strong playoff. Jaylon Moore, who played just 271 snaps with the Niners last season, got a two-year deal worth $30 million from Kansas City to be a bridge option for rookie Josh Simmons.
After a strong playoff run last year, Dyami Brown inked a $10 million deal with the Jaguars after having 784 yards across his four regular seasons with the Commanders.
Recency bias is real, and both Lowe and Brown could cash in if they can put together strong end-of-season performances. If they can be even serviceable, they'll maintain their roles as fringe starters in the NFL, and as a lineman, that's very valuable.
After a strong outing that saw the Patriots move to 11-2, Lowe and Co. have no reason not to be incredibly confident going into the bye. Here's to hoping Maye's play can continue to motivate them to be great.