It appears thumb surgery will not end Jacoby Brissett’s rookie season after all.
The New England Patriots plan to activate the quarterback off injured reserve and add him to their 53-man roster this week, a source told The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin.
“While we don’t have any specifics on Tom Brady’s knee injury,” Volin wrote Sunday, “we hear he’s pretty ‘banged up,’ and that he won’t be taking too many practice reps for the near future. Jimmy Garoppolo took all of the practice reps Wednesday and Thursday, and we’re told the Patriots plan to activate Jacoby Brissett off injured reserve this week, barring an unexpected circumstance. Brissett is seven weeks off of thumb surgery, and the Patriots will use Brady’s injury to get Brissett some much-needed work in practice.”
Brissett hasn’t played since Week 4 — the last game before Brady returned from his four-game Deflategate suspension — but he traveled with the team on each of its last three road trips: to Buffalo, to San Francisco and, most recently, to East Rutherford, N.J., where the Patriots will visit the New York Jets on Sunday.
Brissett, who underwent surgery Oct. 7, has appeared in three games this season, starting two. He has completed 34 of 55 passes for 400 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions and also rushed 16 times for 83 yards and one score.
Even if the third-round draft pick is, in fact, reactivated this week, it’s unlikely he’ll see the field again this season. Garoppolo is Brady’s primary backup, meaning one or both of them would need to suffer an injury for New England to turn back to Brissett.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
