The Patriots Put Martellus Bennett and Nate Ebner on IR

Jerry Thornton 11/28/2017 10:28 AM

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I get that no one wants to hear Patriots fans crying a river. When other teams’ realities involve watching their season go up in flames due to one injury to a quarterback or a running back getting screwed by a power-mad dictator, losing  a backup tight end and a professional special teamer doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. But in the word of the great Lt. Frank Drebin, this is our hill. These are our beans.

Ebner is a loss not just because he’s the leading tackler on special teams and the safety in their goal line defense. But also because I think he’s just one of those guys who means a lot more to his team than his role would suggest. In that way that Matthew Slater never sees the field on offense or defense, but he’s team captain and the one who breaks everyone down in the locker room after a win. Let’s not forget that when Ebner was off in Rio with the Olympic Rugby team, coaches were at training camp wearing his Team USA shirt and Slater practiced wearing his No. 43 Patriots jersey. With some guys, there’s just an emotional component they bring with them, and Ebner is one. Hell, even the way he was lost for the season, balling out while converting a fake punt, his blown out knee dying a hero, was inspirational. Not to mention, he represents yet another loss of the Patriots’ collective handsomeness. Which, given the losses of Julian Edelman,. Jimmy Garoppolo and now Ebner, is now reaching critical mass. (Next man up, Brady, Danny Amendola and Kyle Van Noy.)

But from a slightly less practical standpoint, losing Martellus Bennett is an even bigger loss. For years now, this offense had tried to establish a viable two-tight end threat. Through Josh McDaniels to Bill O’Brien and then back to McDaniels. Through a half dozen Gronk injuries and an equal number of failed attempts to put someone opposite him. Obviously they had it for a while and were in the process of evolving modern tackle football with it, before Gronk’s bookend decided to go all Shooty McMurder on everybody. But since then it’s been one failed attempt after another. Scott Chandler and Zach Sudfeld and all the guys they drafted and the latest swing and a miss, Dwayne Allen.

For one brief, shining moment, Bennett looked like he was the answer. Two moments, I guess. In two games back in New England, Brady targeted him six times for six receptions in two blowout wins on the road. In limited duty he was blocking well. Being that dual threat opposite Gronk’s dual threat that was going to make them quadruple threats and put every defensive coordinator they faced star popping anti-anxiety meds.

As for Bennett, I won’t guarantee he’s back next year. There’s a reason they let him walk at the end of last season. His brief time in New England makes the Patriots the only team he hasn’t ended it on bad terms with. He’s that girl who’s done every guy she’s with dirty, and even though she hasn’t done it to you, you’d have to be a fool to trust her. I love the whole goofy Martysaurus act, but I’m told his teammates think he’s the annoying kind of weird, not the good kind of weird. Like grandstanding and attention-whoring in the locker room when no one’s listening to him. And so if I had to guess, I’d say the days of him being the Murtaugh to Gronk’s Riggs are over. And all too brief they were. Now it’s back to Square One with Allen in hopes he’s finally gaining Brady’s trust. It seems unlikely this late in the game, but there’s no other option other than to just scrap it and keep throwing to the backs instead. Again, it’s not the biggest loss they could suffer. In fact, neither Ebner nor Bennett are in the top 30. But it still blows.
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