Christian Gonzalez will miss Patriots’ season opener against Raiders

FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots won’t have Christian Gonzalez out there for Sunday’s season opener towards the Raiders, coach Mike Vrabel instructed reporters on Friday afternoon.

Gonzalez has been out for greater than a month with a hamstring damage. The third-year cornerback’s absence is just not a shock. He hasn’t practiced since July twenty eighth.

Vrabel talked about Alex Austin and Marcus Jones among the many gamers who will see motion throughout Gonzalez’s absence. Offseason signing Carlton Davis can even be within the combine, and coaching camp standout DJ James might see some motion as nicely.

The Raiders are coming to city with a brand new head coach (Pete Carroll) and a brand new quarterback (Geno Smith) as they provide this New England secondary its first take a look at of the season.

Smith led the Seahawks to a Week 2 extra time win over the Patriots at Gillette Stadium final season, posting 327 yards and a landing with no turnovers on 33 of 44 passing.

The Patriots’ secondary will look fairly totally different from the final time Smith noticed them. Gonzalez is injured, Jabrill Peppers has been reduce, Kyle Dugger has been benched, and Davis was on one other group final 12 months.

Vrabel additionally introduced that rookie left sort out Will Campbell is questionable with an ankle damage. Campbell was a restricted participant at observe on Friday.

Defensive sort out Christian Barmore has been restricted through the previous two practices. The Patriots didn’t record his standing on the damage report. They did point out that the boundaries on Barmore’s observe availability weren’t associated to an damage.

Cornerback Charles Woods (groin) and extensive receiver Efton Chism III (knee) had been each full contributors at Friday’s observe.

The Patriots will kick off the motion towards the Raiders on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

Khari A. Thompson

Sports activities Reporter

Khari Thompson covers skilled sports activities for Boston.com. Earlier than becoming a member of the group in 2022, Khari coated faculty soccer for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.