The New England Patriots enter Week 8 action with a 1-6 record and badly needing a win. In order to do so, they will have to figure out how to beat Aaron Rodgers and the struggling New York Jets.

Drake Maye and the offense have started looking better over the past couple of weeks, but the defense needs to improve.

That being said, the defense may be forced to play without a key star this week.

The Patriots announced that they added safety Kyle Dugger (ankle) to the injury report today and that he’s questionable for Sunday’s contest, suggesting that he was hurt during Saturday’s practice.

Right now, New England has eight other players on the report with a questionable designation. Those players are defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale, cornerback Jonathan Jones, offensive guard Michael Jordan, offensive tackle Vederian Lowe, linebacker Raekwon McMillan, offensive lineman Sidy Sow, linebacker Sione Takitaki and defensive end Keion White.

Needless to say, there a few names on that list that would very negatively impact the Patriots’ defense if they were to be absent.

In six games this season, Dugger has made a major impact for New England. He has racked up 35 total tackles to go along with a sack, a forced fumble and two defended passes.

Not only is Dugger a big impact player with his individual performance, he is also a leader for the team. Losing him would make things much more difficult on the Patriots’ defense against Rodgers.

Hopefully, he’s able to get healthy enough to give it a go tomorrow. New England needs him on the field.

This is a fluid situation. We’ll make sure to provide more updates as they become available. However, this is a serious potential loss to monitor for the Patriots that could have a massive impact on the team against a Jets squad that desperately needs a win themselves.