FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- When the New England Patriots traded defensive end Chandler Jones in March, one line of thinking was that they were comfortable doing so because they had Jabaal Sheard ready to elevate into a starting role.
That is how things started in 2016, but in Sunday night’s 31-24 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Sheard was buried in the No. 4 spot on the depth chart and played a season-low 16 snaps.