Trent Brown appears to be close to his return back to the field for the New England Patriots.
The starting tackle went down with a calf injury in the season-opener against the Miami Dolphins and he’s been on the injured reserve list since. Brown returned to practice this week and now the Patriots have 21 days to decide when they want to activate him, if they do at all.
New England’s offensive line is coming together and the addition of Brown would make for a dominant mid-season group. Bill Belichick discussed Brown’s status on Friday ahead of the Cleveland Browns matchup and gave an encouraging update.
“Trent’s all in every day,” Belichick said, transcribed by WEEI. “He does what we ask him to do. He’s been a little bit limited at times, but he’s tried not to let that affect what he can do. He continues to work on things that he can do. Sometimes it’s limited. But he’s made good progress and we’ll just take it day by day here. But we’ll see where we are today and then evaluate his week and go from there.”
Offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo gave similar comments about Brown earlier this week.
“He’s working his butt off,” Bricillo said. “Every time I see him around in the halls he’s got a towel around his neck and sweating, so he must be doing something.”
The Patriots have an interesting decision on where they want to place Brown once he returns — whether that’s right or left tackle.