Patriots mailbag: Who are the most irreplaceable players on the 2025 team?

The Patriots are - riding an eight-game winning streak and set to face off against a depleted Bengals association Let s answer your questions in our weekly Patriots mailbag ted mcgregor Pats have had incredible injury luck so far What s the one position group outside qb we would see immediate downturn in play if starters started to fall That s a really good question As you announced Drake Maye is the the majority irreplaceable contestant on the roster Behind him based on depth I think Christian Gonzalez Will Campbell and Robert Spillane might be the bulk invaluable starters The Patriots lost their only two games of the season without Gonzalez If he or Carlton Davis suffered injuries it would mean more snaps outside for Marcus Jones and a top-three cornerback role for Charles Woods Campbell s backups at left tackle are Vederian Lowe and Marcus Bryant Morgan Moses also deserves a spot on this list but it s somewhat easier to get by without a starting right tackle And Spillane is far and away the Patriots best linebacker The defense would suffer quite a bit if Christian Elliss Jack Gibbens or Jahlani Tavai were questioned to play his role though they re all solid in their secondary roles in the defense Beyond those players Stefon Diggs Marcus Jones Milton Williams Christian Barmore Harold Landry III and K Lavon Chaisson would all be missed but the Patriots have better depth at wide receiver and defensive tackle Patsfan I am still scared of Denver at Denver no matter who their QB is based on our history on the road there in the playoffs Do you think that is a valid concern this year and I am right to be rooting against Denver hard each week so they have to play us at home if it came to that I personally don t put a lot of stock into club vs gang performance if none of the players or coaches are still around I don t really care how the Patriots performed in Denver in or because Peyton Manning was the quarterback and Gary Kubiak and John Fox were the head coaches I don t think there s anything particular about playing in Denver in January that should make a winnable matchup more intricate That Patriots club wasn t as talented as the and squads plus they didn t have Rob Gronkowski The crew was injury-ravaged as well There were a number of key players on injured reserve by the end of that season Ultimately the No seed in the playoffs has never been more valuable since only one company per confernence gets a bye and you get home-field advantage throughout the postseason So you should be rooting against Denver and any association that could take that away from the Patriots NEspiders Is Harold Landry playing injured He started off the season strong with sacks pressures and since his injury he has not been much of a factor on the pass rush Landry hasn t been listed on the injury statement since Week when he was questionable with an ankle injury I know he had what appeared to be a scary knee injury against the Saints in Week but he returned to that event He hasn t had more than four pressures in a meeting since Week but he is playing a lot He s played the eighth-most defensive snaps of any edge defender in the NFL he s years old and the Patriots haven t hard their bye week yet I m curious to see if he can produce more this Sunday against the Bengals since the Patriots got a mini bye coming off of the Thursday night event against the Jets Landry has still be a solid defender despite the low sack numbers in new weeks I wouldn t mind seeing Elijah Ponder and potentially Bradyn Swinson mixed in more over the final third of the season Ponder an undrafted rookie now has sacks in consecutive weeks Swinson was signed off of the practice squad this week There s no guarantee that he ll be progressing on Sundays but he was a very disruptive pass-rusher during his senior season at LSU registering total pressures He had the fifth-highest pass-rush productivity among edge defenders in his draft class per PFF and his pass-rush win rate also ranked fifth Expectations should be tempered since Swinson didn t even make the roster out of training camp and spent the first weeks of the season on the practice squad but there s specific upside there KickRaeble At the beginning of the season making the playoffs was the goal How far do we move the goalposts for this gang after the surprising first weeks If the goal at the beginning of the season was to make the playoffs then it was a pretty lofty one The Patriots went - in back-to-back years and their over under win total was just games I think making the playoffs presumably became the goal after beating the Bills That s at least when I started talking about playoffs in earnest Now I would say the goal is to win at least one playoff competition There s still time to raise that ceiling again by the end of the season Mettwurscht How do the Pats use their safeties Do they play a lot of Cover or is Woodson more of a FS The Patriots mix their coverages pretty evenly Here s the breakdown via Sumer Sports Cover Cover Cover Cover Cover Redzone Cover Cover Man Misc They re in post safety one safety deep looks of the time split safety two safeties deep looks of the time and other of the time Jaylinn Hawkins is aligned as a free safety on of snaps while Craig Woodson is aligned as a free safety on of his snaps So to answer your question everything is pretty even Hawkins plays a higher percentage of snaps at free safety but Woodson s rate is still over They re both safeties There s not a traditional strong safety and free safety If anything they re both more free safety types than strong safety types