This EXACTLY what the Patriots needed... Major Patriots updates

This is exactly what the Patriots needed as we have some major Patriots updates heading into week two of the NFL season with an injury update you're not going to want to miss, plus a new signing for the Patriots as well, plus Josh McDaniel speaks out about how his struggles on offense last week are not going to carry over into this week or the rest of the season for this specific reason. We'll tell you here today on Patriots Digest. Welcome everybody, I'm Chase Andrews and I hope you're having a fantastic day wherever you might be. Thursday we are officially a week past, a week plus now past the Patriots first game of the 2026 season. Feeling better, feeling like we're taking a deep breath, got the Steelers at home, open up Gillette Stadium, we're in the silver pants, gonna be excited. Before that and before we get to the news today, I want to make sure you hit that subscribe button as we're closing in on 13,000 subscribers, just 102 away. If you're watching today, you haven't subscribed, you want Patriots news every single day, we got your covers, go down there and hit that subscribe button. Plus got a live stream coming up this Sunday for the game. We're excited. I hope you're excited. And man, let's get into the news for today's show. So let's start with a couple of different, I guess, things to go. And the more positive news, I guess we could say, is from Travion Henderson. He said he is quote, ready to go for Sunday's home opener. New England will have their top two backs healthy. Now, yesterday we did see that Travion was fully healthy at practice. He was a full participant and played, you know, as at max capacity. That was a good sign. The fact that this past week on Monday he was at practice, that was a good sign. And now we get the official confirmation that he will be active and most likely playing. It seems like at least to his account for week number two, the 911 yard rookie season is behind him. Now it's time to, well, build upon that and help the Patriots get a win in week number two, which makes it even more a good thing for me to trade on Cal. She, yes, for the Patriots to win this game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, $25 on the Patriots to win this game on. Yes. On a trade, we'll get you $35 and 95 cents back on Cal. She are trading directly against other users, not the house, like a traditional sports book. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports politics, or even the weather, for example. Now you can also trade on player touchdowns. If you think that Travion is going to score, you can go trade on that today on Cal sheet as well. Of course, if you're interested, we've got a special deal for you, because if you want to try our presenting sponsor, Cal sheet, and you use the link in the description or the one, the pin comment and use code digest NFL, you're going to get $25 added to your account. Instantly. We appreciate Cal sheet for sponsoring today's show. Go great news there. Obviously Travion is such a huge part of this offense and the running game lacked last week. That's simple as that. The running game was remanded Ray Stevenson and going on a halfback dive every single time. Now, at the end of the game, it started to kind of let's not talk about what happened, but I do think that this is going to be a different team. Week one, they definitely looked like they were playing their first preseason game. They just weren't in the same mannerisms they had throughout the last year and really any time when they felt comfortable. So that is definitely something that will be watched for. I guess you could say a couple of the notes I want to get to throughout today's show, but let's hit this one first. The Patriots have waived a practice squad member and opened up a practice squad. Jacob Rizzi was waived today. He was the actually offensive lineman out of Harvard, kind of a hometown guy in some ways. And then we got the follow-up corresponding moves just a little bit ago. Actually, we'll come back to that. But here's the corresponding moves along with the injury report. Offensive guard Xavier Newman Johnson was present wearing number 64. He's taking Jacob Rizzi spot on the roster. Plus an injury news, Demetrius Crown over Carlton Davis were absent from practice and Draymond Jones didn't return to practice. Some notes on Carlton Davis, you might saw there. We'll come back to that. But I do want to talk about Xavier Newman Johnson as the new member of the practice squad. I do think that this is actually a pretty solid signing. He's been in the NFL, I believe, since like 2023. So let's go to this report from Oliver Thomas of Pat's Pulpit. 27 into the league with the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted rookie in 2022. The Baylor product spent parts of two seasons between practice squads and active rosters in the AFC South before heading to the AFC East during 2023. He remained a member of the New York Jets through a series of transactions until being released from the practice squad earlier in the week. Up until now in the NFL, he has 338 snaps on offense and 68 snaps on special teams. Six foot two 297 pound blocker finished last year on end of reserve. He's going to be an extra offensive lineman in the book. And for all the purposes, sometimes the practice squad, it might just be an extra body, but it's still definitely something to look for. And obviously is, you know, I would say something that is going to be helpful and potentially a guy that we could see pulled up later on in the season, knock on wood, there's no injuries that force him to. Now, you did see in terms of injuries, some other notes on there. And I wanted to go back to these from Ethan Hurwitz, a couple of absence, Demetrius Crown over Carlton Davis, they were both gone and Davis. Now his second missed day of practice, should he not be there tomorrow, or even a limited fashion, it's going to be a little bit of a tough thing for this New England Patriots cornerback, especially you've got Michael, Michael Pittman alongside DK Metpath. And of course, a great quarterback in Aaron Rodgers who can truck the deep ball. In terms of your depth chart, you've got Christian Gonzalez. And of course, Carlton Davis is your number two, Marcus Jones, was not so you're going to see a lot of Charles was chaining Canada and Karen Pronti. Kildan Vildor is also on the practice squad, we could see a potential of him put up there. I also wouldn't be shocked or that's a specialist. I wouldn't be shocked if we ended up deciding to take a safety and put him in the cornerback slot. It'd be an interesting move. But we have seen Jalen Reed or Del Pettis play in that cornerback slot in their career at times. I think that's probably a last second decision, I would probably go with Karen Pronti. First, he had actually a pretty darn good preseason. And a guy who played in the preseason, which we saw last week might actually be a pretty good help, but definitely something to start being watching of. And what exactly that cornerback room is going to look like should Carlton Davis missed tomorrow's Sunday. Now, again, it's still a lot to go still a lot of things to go on. And of course, it's, you know, got a couple days and if he's even if we could be a full participant next year, who knows? I'm going to go back to Xavier Newman Johnson just a minute, again, was in 2022 and as a UDF they sign on the Tennessee Titans again was released from the Jets practice squad on Tuesday. So he was previously on an NFL practice squad before getting assigned here. And that's going to be a pretty big thing. Again, I do think that he actually might get pulled up. One final report. I do want to go to is Josh McDaniels and talking about the thing that he was, well, looking at most last week saying that they didn't have film on Drake May last year. And that's now they do. And they need to practice patience and discipline. This is actually a really interesting thing that I want to talk about for just a second, because Drake May did not look the same in week number one as he looked in the entirety of the year last year and had had another multiple multiple interception game as back-to-back games technically going to go back to the Super Bowl both from coming to the Seahawks. This is a pivotal week for Drake May in some ways. And listen, I still have confidence. But as a national media perspective, if you come out here in a season that you were MVP runner-up should have been potentially MVP in my opinion. And then you have back-to-back duds and you start to look that way. It's not going to be a great thing. The secondary for the Steelers is not great. Joey Porter Jr. was injured again today and probably won't be playing on Sunday. You have great wide receivers. You have a pretty good offensive line this year. It looked like he kept himself upright for majority of the time. And I do want to put some pressure on Drake May some ways because I think it's going to help him perform, but it's also Josh McDaniels trying to open up the offense a little more. But I do think it was interesting that the quote-unquote excuse that he gave was they have film on him. And now he, you know, is a little more tendency approach and has to be maybe more quick to decision-making. Of course, maybe take away some of those film moments they had last year. Break up its cadence. I mean, it's probably the best way to put it. But let me know what you think. I obviously think this is going to be a very fun game with Aaron Rodgers facing off against the, you know, new aged Patriots. You know, I'm going to say dynasty quarterback, hopefully, or longtime quarterback in Drake May. At least that's kind of the plan at the moment. It is going to be a potential rainy game though. Patriots and the Steelers have a 69% chance of rain right now for this upcoming game. Lots of rain in the East Coast. Jets, Packers got some rain chance as well. So lots of potential rain games. And of course, we will see Stefan digs this weekend, or excuse me, Stefan Gilmore. And how am I saying digs Stefan Gilmore this weekend? He is going to officially retire as a Patriot on Friday. So generally he'll be here Friday. I expect him to be at the game Sunday. Really cool. Really excited to see him back there. Finished out his career with the Vikings and Cowboys, but we all know that Gilmore, he's a, he's a guy who's a Patriot for life. And I'm glad he's going to get retired as an oil and Patriot. We appreciate you watching guys. We'll see you next time here on the show and peace out.