New England Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola will play against the Houston Texans on Sunday. Amendola is dealing with a knee injury and was listed as questionable on the official injury report.
Amendola didn’t get much playing time earlier in the season, but with injuries to Julian Edelman and other Patriots offensive players, Amendola took on an expanded role over the past few weeks. Amendola had nine catches for 117 yards against the Buffalo Bills in Week 11.
Edelman was declared inactive for Sunday’s game.
But Amendola had to miss the Week 12 game against the Denver Broncos, an overtime loss for the Patriots. That was due to the same knee injury that had him questionable in the team’s last game against the Philadelphia Eagles, also a close loss. Amendola did manage to play in that game though, and there have been no reports of a setback.
Amendola caught seven passes for 62 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles. On the year, Amendola has caught 56 passes for 582 yards and three touchdowns. New England’s depleted group of receivers has had players like Keshawn Martin and Matthew Slater getting playing time.
Derek Carr was one of the league’s best quarterbacks before a broken leg ended his season. His passer rating of 96.7, 3,933 passing yards, and a 28:6 TD:INT ratio ranked him among the NFL’s top 10 alongside future Hall of Famers like Drew Brees, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers.
McGloin, meanwhile, has shown up on an NFL leaderboard just once in his career — for falling on his own fumbles three times in six starts (10th in 2013). His all-time passer rating makes him the rough equivalent of 2016 Case Keenum. He’s 1-5 as a starter.
It’s difficult to translate’s McGloin’s past work with a hapless 4-12 Raiders team to his future with a dynamic 12-3 club. He’ll have all the tools he needs to succeed, but there aren’t any easy games on the schedule to allow for a tuneup. He won’t have to be Carr to help Oakland win, but he can’t be Keenum if the Raiders are going to make this rare trip to the postseason last.
Panic index: The second important player in the Raiders’ postseason equation is Khalil Mack, and he can do just about everything. If McGloin reverts to his 2013 form, why not let the uber-athletic pass rusher see how things look on the other side of the ball?
Or see what you’ve got with Big Ten champion Connor Cook, I guess. Yeah, that’s probably better.