Injured Patriots Injured Sack Leader Gearing Up For Playoff Return

Of all the things the New England Patriots can be proud of in their historic 2025 turnaround, their pass rush is not one of them.

The Patriots have the third-fewest sacks of the fourteen playoff teams, with just 35 on the season.

Their struggling pass rush could be getting a boost very soon in the form of veteran edge rusher Harold Landry III.

Landry recorded a team-best 8.5 sacks in his 15 games played during the regular season.

He has been dealing with a knee injury all season, according to outside linebackers coach Mike Smith. The last time he saw game action was in Week 16 against the Baltimore Ravens.

Smith’s quotes this week indicate that the decision for Landry not to play in the final two games of the regular season was to manufacture rest for the 32-year-old before the playoff push.

“He’s been banged up a little bit all year, and there’s certain things that people just don’t realize and how tough that kid is,” Smith said. “Came to a decision in the last couple of weeks to rest him just to get him some rest, kind of forced it on him because he wants to be out there.”

He is officially listed as questionable going into the wild-card matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers, but his return to practice on Thursday is a great sign.

“(Thursday) was the first time in a couple of weeks we could see him running around. We’ll put the film on and see exactly how it looks, but he’s been rehabbing his butt off,” Smith said. “He’s been in this game long enough to know how important the playoffs are and how hard it is to get to the playoffs. He hasn’t taken a day off since we let him rest. We’ll see how it looks today, talk to the training staff and Vrabes, and go from there.”