The New England Patriots will be down three starters for their Week 10 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, but their inactivities are no surprise: all of them were already ruled out on Friday and ended up not making the trip to Florida.
Wide receiver Kayshon Boutte (hamstring) and linebacker Christian Elliss (hip) will both miss their first game of the season, while running back Rhamondre Stevenson (toe) has now been sidelined in back-to-back weeks. All of that was already known, which meant that the only uncertainty was the other four spots on the inactives list.
Needless to say, the Patriots did not pull any surprises out of their proverbial hat.
With the final injury report only consisting of the aforementioned Rhamondre Stevenson, Kayshon Boutte and Christian Elliss, the rest of the inactives include the usual suspects.
Tommy DeVito remains the third/emergency quarterback — meaning he will dress but is not allowed to enter the game unless both Drake Maye and backup Joshua Dobbs become unavailable — while Caedan Wallace and Eric Gregory remain developmental depth pieces along the interior offensive and defensive lines, respectively. The same is true for recent practice squad pickup John Saunders Jr. at safety.
The Buccaneers headed into Sunday with four players already declared out, including starters at running back (Bucky Irving), wide receiver (Chris Godwin) and outside linebacker (Haason Reddick). Meanwhile, starting right tackle Luke Goedeke will return to the lineup after missing the previous seven weeks on injured reserve.
Kickoff between the Patriots and Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium is set for 1 p.m. ET.
