FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The final numbers are in from preseason games over the last five days, and the New England Patriots stand out with their approach: After further review, they had a league-high 40 players who didn’t play in Thursday’s first exhibition game.
That’s nearly half of the 90-man roster – and nearly double the next NFL team in terms of inactive players. Bill Belichick explained that three days of joint practices with the Jacksonville Jaguars leading into the game was a big part of his thinking.
“We played a lot of guys in practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday against Jacksonville, so a lot of guys that are going to play for us got a lot of reps,” Belichick had said in a pregame radio interview on 98.