Patriots CB Carlton Davis ruled out of home opener vs. Steelers

New England Patriots

Davis was listed as questionable on Friday with a neck injury, and downgraded on Saturday.

The Patriots are officially heading into Sunday’s home opener shorthanded at the cornerback position.

Carlton Davis, who did not participate in practice all week but was initially listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report, has since been downgraded to out.

Mike Vrabel has long stressed that New England isn’t very deep at most positions, and will need to rely on younger, less experienced depth players. That’s certainly the case at cornerback.

Davis is the team’s second outside corner behind Christian Gonzalez. Marcus Jones is typically the Patriots’ star slot-corner, but will likely need to take some reps on the outside on Sunday despite being undersized. Behind him, Charles Woods and rookie Karon Prunty are the depth options.

Woods seemed to pick up the majority of Davis’s slack when the CB got injured in the Week 1 loss, and it seems he’ll be tasked with some additional workload once again.

Notably, the Patriots did not elect to elevate anyone from the practice squad following Davis’s status change. Kindle Vildor was available, but New England is seemingly content with the defensive backs already on its roster.

Luckily for New England, the Steelers have an injury of their own at a corresponding position. Michael Pittman Jr., Pittsburgh’s second wide receiver behind D.K. Metcalf, has also been ruled out of Sunday’s matchup with a foot injury. So, if the game plan was to match Gonzalez up against Metcalf, and Davis against Pittman, then there’s not much difference in the game plan from a personnel perspective.

Sunday’s game is also expected to be quite rainy, at least in the first half, so passing might not be as prevalent anyways.

It’s unclear if Davis will need a stint on the injured reserve list, or if he’ll be able to return to action sooner than that. The Patriots have tough games ahead of them, facing the Jaguars and Bills in back-to-back weeks following Sunday’s home opener. So the sooner, the better regarding Davis’s recovery from the neck injury.