Patriots Provide Final Injury Designation For Mack Hollins Before AFCCG
The New England Patriots offense will once again be at full strength with veteran wide receiver Mack Hollins returning to the lineup for the team’s AFC Championship Game battle against the Denver Broncos.
Hollins has not played since Week 16, when he went off for seven catches and 69 yards in the team’s narrow 28-24 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on “Sunday Night Football.”
He played the entire game and was placed on Injured Reserve immediately after with a mysterious abdominal injury.
He has missed each of the last four games, and the passing game has quietly struggled because of it.
Quarterback Drake Maye completed 31 passes for a career-high 380 yards in that road victory over the Ravens. Maye has not surpassed 20 completions in a single game since Hollins went down.
The team has felt his absence the most on third down.
The Patriots were inside the top-10 in the league for third-down conversion rate, capitalizing on more than 41% of opportunities.
In the last three weeks, that number has fallen to 34.29%.
Hollins was a limited participant on Thursday and a full participant on Friday.