The Patriots walked through Monday's practice with five bodies missing, and the most glaring absences are on the offensive line. Ben Brown and Alijah Vera-Tucker—both guards—were among those sidelined, which should concern Mike Vrabel heading into a matchup with Chicago. This isn't a minor inconvenience. This is the kind of depth chart erosion that forces tough decisions about starting personnel and backup continuity.
Brown and Vera-Tucker are starters. You lose both of them in the same week, and suddenly you're looking at emergency plugs into your interior line protection. The Patriots have depth at guard—Mike Onwenu is on the roster, as are Xavier Newman and Darrian Dalcourt—but there's a meaningful drop-off from your preferred five to your Plan B. Every team deals with injuries. How you manage that gap between starter and reserve often determines whether you steal a win or limp out of it.
The concern runs deeper than just guard play. Five non-participants on a Monday walkthrough suggests lingering issues from the previous week's action. Vrabel inherited a program that needs to prove it can stay healthy and execute under pressure. The Bears aren't a gimme opponent, and facing them without your full complement of starting linemen—especially in a walkthrough day, which typically means worse news than full practice participation—puts real strain on offensive continuity.
The silver lining: it's only Monday. Players can return to practice Tuesday and Wednesday. But the fact that Brown and Vera-Tucker didn't even walk through tells you the team is being cautious, which is fair given the stakes. You can't afford to rush guys back and lose them for multiple weeks. Still, for a Patriots team trying to prove it belongs in this division, having to navigate a divisional test against Chicago without full health is a luxury this roster can't really afford. The games matter now.