The team captain will reportedly miss the remaidner of the year with a torn pec.
The New England Patriots’ Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks was more costly than initially anticipated. Linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley, who left the game in the second quarter due to what was later announced as a shoulder injury, will reportedly miss the remainder of the 2024 season due to a torn pectoral muscle.
The injury is an obvious blow to player and team alike. What does it mean from a big-picture perspective, though? Let’s assess.
Patriots lose their defensive leader
A fifth-round draft pick in 2018, Bentley is one of the few remaining links between the Patriots’ dynasty and their current configuration. As such, he took over a leadership role on the defensive side of the ball following the departures of long-time captains Dont’a Hightower and Devin McCourty.
The Purdue product was voted a team captain for the fourth time in his career earlier this month, and has been a tone-setter for one of the NFL’s better defenses both on and off the field. With him now gone, the Patriots will have to fill a void on the field and in the locker room.
Fellow defensive captains Deatrich Wise Jr. and Jabrill Peppers will be on the forefront of those efforts, as will be other veterans such as Jahlani Tavai or Jonathan Jones.
Linebacker depth will be tested
Bentley has been the Patriots’ No. 1 linebacker and among a group of players to rarely leave the field regardless of situation; together with safeties Kyle Dugger and Jabrill Peppers and cornerback Christian Gonzalez, he was a true 100-percenter on the defensive side of the ball. It remains to be seen whether New England will replace him 1-by-1 or — to quote the 2011 movie Moneyball — recreate him in the aggregate.
Sunday’s game against the Seahawks might give us some clues, though. After Bentley exited the game, Jahlani Tavai took over as the top off-ball linebacker; he ended up playing 69 of 70 possible snaps.
Alongside Tavai, the Patriots inserted Raekwon McMillan. The former second-round draft pick, who missed two of the last three season due to injury himself, is the frontrunner to move up into the starting lineup with Bentley out.
Besides him and Tavai, New England also has core special teamer Christian Elliss on its 53-man roster to serve as an emergency linebacker option. Curtis Jacobs and practice squad member Joe Giles-Harris provide addition depth.
The Patriots’ linebacker depth also might get an additional boost in the form of Sione Takitaki and Marte Mapu.
A free agency acquisition earlier this year, Takitaki was originally expected to compete for the No. 3 role at the position but was forced to spend all of training camp on the physically unable to perform list after undergoing a knee scope in the offseason. He is eligible to return off PUP after Week 4.
The same is true for Mapu, a safety/linebacker hybrid who suffered an undisclosed injury early in training camp. The 2023 third-round draft pick was placed on injured reserve ahead of roster cutdowns but designated to return.
Another core defender misses extended time
Bentley is not the first prominent member of the Patriots defense to miss extended time this season. The aforementioned Sione Takitaki and Marte Mapu can also be classified as such, but biggest name is without a doubt Christian Barmore.
One of the most disruptive interior defenders in the league, Barmore was diagnosed with blood clots early in training camp and has been sidelined ever since. He was eventually moved to the non-football injury list, meaning that he too will miss the first four weeks of the 2024 season.
Even though he has been spotted in the locker room on multiple occasions since the start of the season, his status remains unknown. Like Bentley, he too would have been a core member of the New England defense when healthy.
Kyle Dugger remains the signal caller
Following Devin McCourty’s retirement last offseason, the Patriots made Ja’Whaun Bentley their on-field signal caller on the defensive side of the ball. The 28-year-old wore the green dot on his helmet, indicating that he was the one responsible for communication after receiving calls from the sideline.
Just like last year, though, the team also prepared other players to handle those duties. Next man up on Sunday was safety Kyle Dugger, and he will likely continue to serve as signal caller moving forward.
On Monday, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo was complimentary of Dugger’s job.
“Communication was good, and it was Dugger,” he explained. “Remember, Dugger did it all last year as well, so it was not anything new for him. I’ve always been a huge believer in a linebacker having the green dot, but I’ll tell you, the way Dugger played yesterday as a whole and being able to handle the communication, he definitely filled in for that role.”
Patriots stand to gain cap space in 2025
Bentley missing the remainder of the year will also have a financial impact on both him and the Patriots. While his original $6.273 million salary cap number for the 2024 season will remain intact, the defender will not be able to earn his roster bonuses and likely-to-be-earned incentives.
As a result, the team will earn a credit on its 2025 cap, as pointed out by salary cap expert Miguel Benzan.
Bentley’s deal includes per-game roster bonuses of $60,000 this season. He earned the first two of those payments, but will not get the next 14 for a total sum of $840,000 (the 17th possible bonus is considered not likely to be earned and therefore not part of those calculations). That sum, just like his $1 million in incentives, will be credited to the Patriots’ cap in 2025.
Bentley signed a two-year, $13.5 million contract extension with the Patriots last year. He is set to become an unrestricted free agent in March 2026.
A roster spot will soon open up
Bentley being diagnosed with a torn pec is expected to lead to him landing on the injured reserve list, a move that will in turn open up a spot on the Patriots’ active roster.
How the team will fill that spot remains to be seen. At the moment, multiple options seem to be open — from signing a member of the practice squad to the 53-man team, to signing players off free agency or other practice squads, to leaving the spot unoccupied in case either Sione Takitaki or Marte Mapu are close to a return.