New England Patriots Injury News 2016: Pats Place Jerod Mayo on IR with Shoulder Injury
The New England Patriots will be moving on to the conference championship on Sunday against the Denver Broncos, just one win away from getting to the Super Bowl once again. But they will have to do that without Jerod Mayo.
The linebacker has had a rough season this year, and getting a shoulder injury during their game against the Chiefs summed it all up. The team announced that they have placed him on injured reserve, which roughly means that his season is over.
He's been playing as a reserve all season long, with the coaching staff opting to use Jamie Collins and Don'ta Hightower in the middle. With the news of the injury, the position left by Mayo is expected to be filled by three candidates, Darius Fleming, Jon Bostic, or Jonathan Freeny. But the team also has a vacant spot to fill in their 53-man active roster. They're given the opportunity to fill that up before Sunday's game.
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The 29-year-old now will have to be sidelined for the third straight time. And yes, he also was placed on injured reserve the past two seasons. He was able to keep himself healthy all throughout the regular season though, playing all 16 games and starting in eight of them. In all of that, he produced 49 tackles, a single sack, and one pass defense.
The former first round draft pick of the New England Patriots in the 2008 NFL Draft has played in a total of 103 regular season games for the team that drafted him, making 900 tackles in the process and adding 11 sacks and three interceptions. He also had 19 passes defensed and eight forced fumbles.
Aside from Mayo, another key contributor who got injured in the divisional round is Jamie Collins, and there is no official word yet as to his availability for Sunday's game.
