FOXBOROUGH — The New England Patriots have placed starting right guard Greg Van Roten on injured reserve with a thigh injury, sidelining him for at least the next four games. The move comes one week after the team lost starter Mike Onwenu and follows Van Roten's injury during Sunday's blowout loss in Jacksonville.
New England entered the 2026 season with Onwenu as its starting right guard before he suffered a broken ankle in the Week 2 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Van Roten, a training camp signing who had played every offensive snap for the New York Giants in 2024 and 2025, stepped in between center Jared Wilson and right tackle Morgan Moses but lasted only 64 snaps as the replacement. The Patriots then turned to third-stringer Walter Rouse — a late-August trade acquisition who had not played a single regular-season snap at right guard before Sunday — and he struggled against Jacksonville.
With Van Roten now out, New England faces another reshuffle ahead of Week 4 against the Buffalo Bills. The team has six interior offensive linemen available between the active roster and practice squad: Alijah Vera-Tucker (75), Jared Wilson (55), Ben Brown (77) and Walter Rouse (72) on the 53-man roster, plus Jake Kubas (63) and Xavier Newman-Johnson (64) on the practice squad. Brown and Rouse are the realistic candidates to start, with Brown — who missed time earlier this year with a preseason ankle injury and opened the summer as the No. 4 interior lineman — offering more system experience than the third-year Rouse. Rookie first-round pick Caleb Lomu has taken guard snaps in practice, but with Morgan Moses nursing an injury and Lomu focused at tackle, a move inside appears unlikely unless forced.
The Patriots did not announce a corresponding move, leaving them at 51 players on the active roster as of Tuesday afternoon. They also have not filled the spot created when rookie outside linebacker Quintayvious Hutchins went on injured reserve last week. Five players become eligible to return after Week 4 — OT Marcus Bryant, ED Harold Landry, LB Khalil Jacobs, S Brenden Schooler and P Bryce Baringer — and the team could keep spots open and use practice-squad elevations against Buffalo. The injury toll marks a sharp turn from a relatively healthy 2025 Super Bowl season; New England has placed 17 different players on injured reserve since the offseason, with 11 still on the list including RB Myles Montgomery, WR A.J. Brown, WR Jeremiah Webb, TE Julian Hill, Bryant, Onwenu, Van Roten, Hutchins, Jacobs, S Dell Pettus and Baringer. Brown is eligible to return in two weeks, Baringer after Week 4 and Pettus after Week 6.