The New England Patriots defeated the Houston Texans 27-20 in the season opener and the game offered us our first glance at how Bill Belichick and the coaching staff truly values their players. There will be more fiddling with the roster over the coming weeks, of course, but the regular season offers much more insight on the depth chart than the preseason.
Here’s what we learned.
Patterson played a mere 16 snaps on offense, which sounds low given his 3 rushing attempts for 13 yards and 1 reception for 6 yards. It’s clear that the Patriots have a special section of their playbook for Patterson if he’s going to see a touch on 25% of his snaps, so perhaps he’s still just working his way into the offense.