Jared Wilson was injured on New England’s opening drive in Cincinnati.
The rookie left guard hurt his ankle on a third-and-1 run, and after staying down for an extended period, struggled to limp to the sideline. Wilson then needed to be carted to the locker room. He was replaced by veteran Ben Brown.
Wilson started 11 of New England’s first 12 games as the Patriots enjoyed excellent continuity on their offensive line. He was the only one to miss a game, as Will Campbell, Garrett Bradbury, Mike Onwenu and Morgan Moses all made 12 starts.
On Friday, Mike Vrabel acknowledged that his team’s run of good health wouldn’t likely be sustainable.
“There’s going to be some injuries that we’re just not going to be able to avoid,” Vrabel said. “Like I tell everybody, the injury rate in the National Football League is 100%. You play long enough, you’re guaranteed to get hurt. I think the biggest thing is that when injuries happen, are the players doing everything that they can to get back? Again, that’s a testament to them, it’s a testament to the training staff and the strength and conditioning staff that they can get them back in a short amount of time.
“I’m not going to sit there and say that there’s some magic formula. There’s just not. I think that when the players are able to stay healthy, stay on the field and help us, that’s a positive. When they can’t, then we have to do everything that we can to get them back as quickly as possible in order to help the football team, and so that’s what we’re focused on.”
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