Patriots inactive analysis: Kyle Dugger and Christian Barmore will play, Hunter Henry and Trent Brown out

The Patriots already ruled out three players before their Week 17 matchup against the Buffalo Bills, so they only needed to announce three more moves. Earlier in the week, the Patriots listed S Jabrill Peppers (hamstring), TE Hunter Henry (knee), and WR Kayshon Boutte (illness) as OUT, and none of them made the trip to Buffalo.

Along with those players, the team announced T Trent Brown, RB JaMycal Hasty, DE Sam Roberts, and QB Nathan Rourke as healthy scratches. The most notable is Trent Brown, who’ll miss his fifth game of the season. 

Full Patriots inactive list: 

• WR Kayshon Boutte
• OT Trent Brown
• RB JaMycal Hasty
• TE Hunter Henry
• S Jabrill Peppers
• DE Sam Roberts
• QB Nathan Rourke (emergency QB)

The rest of the Patriots players who were listed as questionable will play. WR Matthew Slater (hamstring) and S Kyle Dugger will be active.

On the offense, tight-end Hunter Henry will miss his second straight game due to a knee injury he suffered in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs.

In addition, earlier in the week, the Patriots placed WR JuJu Smith-Schuster on the injured reserve with an ankle injury. It should be another big game for tight ends Mike Gesicki and Pharaoh Brown. The Patriots also elevated TE Matt Sokol from the practice squad; he is expected to play minimal snaps on special teams and the offense.

The Patriots will also be without Kayshon Boutte (illness). The team will have four active receivers: DeVante Parker, DeMario Douglas, Tyquan Thornton, and Jalen Reagor.

Moving to the defense, the Patriots will look similar to last week, as Jabrill Peppers will remain inactive despite practicing this week. Kyle Dugger, however, is active and will play through an illness. The Bills have a domain running game and are seventh in EPA per rush since Joe Brady took over calling plays for Buffalo in Week 11. It’ll be interesting to see how the Patriots, who do well against the rush, come up with a game plan to stop James Cook and Josh Allen.

Defensive tackle Christian Barmore (knee), edge Anfernee Jennings (knee), cornerbacks Jonathan Jones (knee), Myles Bryant (chest), and Shaun Wade (hip), safety Kyle Dugger (illness), and special teams captain Matthew Slater (hamstring), will all be active after being listed as questionable.

Meanwhile, OT Andrew Stuber and CB Marco Wilson will make their Patriots debuts today. Stuber, 24.was drafted by the Patriots in the seventh round out of Michigan. The tackle spent his rookie campaign on the NFI list and at the end of the summer the Patriots waived the 24-year old. Wilson, 24, played at the University of Florida for all four years of his college career. The Arizona Cardinals drafted Wilson in the fourth round of the 2021 draft. With the Cardinals, he started 37 of his 43 games the past three years, recording 158 tackles, three forced fumbles, and three interceptions.

Full Bills inactive list: 

• G Alec Anderson
• CB Kaiir Elam
• S Damar Hamlin
• DT Linval Joseph
• ED Von Miller

For the Bills, the biggest surprise is veteran Von Miller being inactive despite not being injured. Miller is purely a healthy scratch. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said his benching was a “coach’s decision.” 

Week 17 for the Patriots begins at 1:00 p.m. ET at Highmark Stadium.