The big news coming out of Patriots practice Wednesday is the return of Danny Amendola.
The wide receiver suffered a high ankle sprain in week 13 and the veteran comes back at a perfect time as New England is in its bye week and getting ready for the divisional round on January 14.
Tom Brady was not out at practice, but there’s nothing to worry about. Since November, it’s becoming normal for the quarterback to take a day off during the week. In November, the 39-year-old was dealing with a knee injury. The last few weeks, the injury report showed he’s dealing with a thigh injury.
Wide Receiver Malcolm Mitchell (knee) is once again not at practice. The rookie appeared to have hurt himself in the week 16 game against the Jets and missed Sunday’s regular season finale in Miami.
Also not seen at practice was cornerback Cyrus Jones who is also dealing with a knee issue.
Congratulations to Julian Edelman. He becomes the first Patriots wide receiver to be named AFC Offensive Player of the Week since Randy Moss in 2007. The 30-year-old had eight receptions for a career-high 151 yards and one touchdown against the Dolphins. Edelman has been healthy this entire season, playing in all 16 games and finishing with a career-high 1,106 receiving yards.
Congratulations to special-teams captain Matthew Slater. The six-time Pro Bowler earned the 2017 Bart Starr Award which was voted upon by the NFL’s players and given annually to a player who exemplifies character and leadership on and off the field.
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This means a lot for the 31-year-old. His father, Hall-of-Fame offensive lineman Jackie Slater, also won this award in 1996 when he was with the Los Angeles Rams.
“It was really emotional for me," Slater said at Wednesday’s news conference. “I’ve always tried to keep in perspective that I’m not different than anyone else because I play football. It’s just a job. But at the end of the day, the connection you make with people, the way you treat people, the things that you try to stand for and believe in – though it may be, as I said, not perfect at times, it’s something that is very important to me. So to win this award, an award that my dad won in 1996, it’s really, I don’t know, it’s hard to put into words. It really is.”
