{"id":817434,"date":"2026-07-22T22:20:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817434\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T22:20:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:20:28","slug":"nfl-insider-says-gabe-jacas-is-inching-closer-to-redshirt-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817434\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL insider says Gabe Jacas is ‘inching closer’ to redshirt year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew England Patriots\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWith training camp less than a week away, this unusual NFL storyline remains unsettled.<\/p>\n

\"New
\n\tGabe Jacas has not been present at Patriots minicamp or OTAs. (AP Photo\/CJ Gunther)\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPatriots land top spot on ESPN\u2019s 25-and-under NFL talent rankings\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCam Newton reacts to ESPN layoffs: \u2018Nothing else could surprise me\u2019 after being cut from Patriots\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Patriots rookie linebacker Gabe Jacas missed spring workouts and has yet to sign his contract with training camp less than a week away. <\/p>\n

With New England in need of edge depth after losing K\u2019Lavon Chaisson in free agency and placing Harold Landry on the PUP list<\/a>, there are concerns that Jacas might not be able to play at all this season. <\/p>\n

\u201cRookies generally do show up when they\u2019re not signed in the spring. That\u2019s normal \u2014 and he didn\u2019t do that,\u201d Sports Illustrated\u2019s Albert Breer said during an appearance on NBC Sports Boston. <\/a>\u201cWhen you aren\u2019t signed and it\u2019s the start of training camp, you don\u2019t show up because if you\u2019re not under contract you\u2019re not going to start practicing, especially when the pads go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moves to another stage, and I think you\u2019re inching closer now to the idea that maybe this winds up being a redshirt year for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training camp is scheduled to start on Saturday in Foxborough. The ramp up torwads fully padded practices is coming. New England is three weeks away from its preseason opener against the Colts. <\/p>\n

The Patriots traded up to select Jacas at No. 55 overall in April\u2019s NFL draft. Executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said the Patriots \u201ccoveted\u201d Jacas and saw him as a player that could help fill a position of need.<\/p>\n

Jacas, who turned 22 in March, is second on the all-time sack list for Illinois football, only trailing three-time Pro Bowler Simeon Rice. <\/p>\n

The Patriots have a dynamic interior pass-rushing duo in Milton Williams and Christian Barmore, but their ability to generate pressure off the edge remains a question mark heading into training camp, especially with last year\u2019s sack leader Landry sidelined.<\/p>\n

Jacas, a 6-foot-4 inch, 261-pound edge rusher who said he models his game after Matthew Judon, was expected to help with that. <\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s unclear when he\u2019ll hit the field, if at all this season. <\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Mike Reiss reported last month<\/a> that Jacas\u2019s absence has to do, at least in part, with the Patriots\u2019 decision to not give him a \u201cparticipation agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost draft picks receive such an agreement,\u201d Reiss wrote. \u201cWhich states that if they were to sustain an injury prior to signing their first NFL contract, the team would still be obligated to sign him to a contract based on the slot he was drafted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two NFL clubs told Reiss that they gave Jacas a passing grade on his physical exam, but there was a list of injuries mentioned in the ESPN story including a labral tear in his shoulder and a stress fracture in his foot, along with a \u201cclean up\u201d knee procedure that was performed in the offseason. <\/p>\n

Jacas\u2019s injury situation only makes the situation more complicated, Breer said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a position of need,\u201d Breer said. \u201cI\u2019d say of the guys in that draft class, when they were drafted, this is probably the guy we were looking at as potentially having the highest instant impact based on who he was coming out of college and based on the need that they have at the position.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a guy that they were counting on playing, and for him to miss not just the playing time but the classroom time in the spring, and now this is still unsettled going into training camp, would only indicate that this is only going to get harder and harder for him to contribute as a rookie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\t\tKhari A. Thompson<\/a>Sports Reporter\t<\/p>\n

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n

Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Patriots With training camp less than a week away, this unusual NFL storyline remains unsettled. Gabe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-817434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}