The Patriots are set to face one of the best offenses of their season so far when they play the Bills for the first time this season on Sunday Night Football. The defense will have their hands full with the AFC Player of the Month in running back James Cook, and one of the best quarterbacks in the league over the last five years, Josh Allen.
That means the group will have to bring their a-game to Buffalo, and that means cleaning up one of their biggest weaknesses: tackling.
It has been an ongoing issue this season so far, particularly with the linebacker group, which has fortunately seen a comeback from Robert Spillane, as he now leads the team in tackles going into this weekend. He might finally have another consistent producer joining him in the starting lineup soon, as Jahlani Tavai returned to practice on Wednesday since landing on IR during the summer.
His return to the field isn't official just yet, but as one of the team's leading tacklers, he could be a massive boost to one of the defense's biggest vulnerabilities this year.
Jahlani Tavai could be the missing piece the Patriots' defense has been missing
Although he has developed an unfavorable reputation amongst Patriots fans due to comments he made last season, Tavai has been a solid producer since taking on a bigger role on the defense. That's what made his suffering another lower-body injury this past summer even more devastating ahead of this season.
He was on pace to be a starter alongside Spillane, which would have been a significant help considering he recorded 115 combined tackles, seven for a loss, five passes defended, an interception, and a sack during the 2024 season.
That kind of production has been lacking with the current linebacker group, making Tavai's absence even more problematic. Their inconsistent production has made it easy for much less talented offenses to make big plays, and that cannot continue as the season progresses and the schedule gets tougher.
Spillane has taken a bit to warm up at the start of his Patriots tenure, which led to many questions about whether he was a signing bust by the new Mike Vrabel regime. But he has fortunately turned things around at the right time, and now we can see Tavai make his job even easier.
That could be the case for Tavai, too, since he has been sidelined for a few months at this point. But hopefully, it won't take long for him to return to the kind of productive player he has become in New England over the last few seasons.