Once upon a time, not all that long ago, the NFL -- a sport with a 100 percent injury rate, a game featuring several concurrent car crashes taking place on every snap, a league where ambulances and paramedics are on hand at all times -- did not allow any players to return to an active roster if they were placed on injured reserve at any point during a season.

This was, of course, insane.

The rules changed in 2012, when teams could activate one player from IR, but that player had to be selected as "designated for return." Five years later, that number doubled to two players, but in the COVID-impacted 2020 season, the number was unlimited.

In 2022, a new rule was established: Eight players could return to a team from IR during a season, provided those players missed four games. That was good. Eight felt like a lot. Most times, it is.

For the 2026 Patriots, though, it is not.

With only 35 percent of the season gone, the Patriots have already activated three players off IR, and they have a small handful of players who presumably will be activated when they are healthy enough to play again. Yet with 11 games remaining, more players certainly will get hurt, so the team likely will have to make some decisions to not bring back some of those players on IR.

Patriots have used three IR activations

Because Brenden Schooler was on the non-football injury list rather than the PUP list, his activation counted as one of the eight allotted slots.

A.J. Brown spent the minimum four weeks on IR after suffering a high ankle sprain in Week 1, returning to the team last week against the Jets.

And though he is -- as of this writing -- still in his 21-day practice window, offensive tackle Marcus Bryant has been tabbed to return. With Will Campbell playing through a knee injury in Week 6 and Morgan Moses questionable for Week 7 with a foot injury, the Patriots do need more depth at the position, even with rookie Caleb Lomu filling in well thus far.

Patriots have nine players other players on IR

Even while excluding Bryant, the Patriots have nine other players on IR who are eligible to return. In a subjective ranking of importance, those players are:

• WR Mack Hollins
• WR Romeo Doubs
• G Greg Van Roten
• S Dell Pettus
• FB Reggie Gilliam
• LB Quintayvious Hutchins
• LB Khalil Jacobs
• G Mike Onwenu*
• P Bryce Baringer

*Mike Onwenu would rank at or near the top of the list, but his broken ankle likely ended his season.

The need for Hollins and Doubs is obvious, even though the Patriots entered the season with receiver being their deepest position. Brown was gone in Week 1, and as soon as he returned in Week 6, Doubs was heading out. That leaves a receiving corps of DeMario Douglas, Efton Chism and Kyle Williams to complement Brown. Presuming both Hollins (calf) and Doubs (shoulder) get healthy, the Patriots will want both back on the field as soon as possible.

The need for Van Roten is, likewise, very apparent after the team suffered injuries to both starting guards last week against the Jets, with Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring) and Ben Brown (knee) both getting hurt. Brown was already a third-stringer (behind Onwenu and Van Roten), which forced Matt Pryor and Walter Rouse into action from deep on the depth chart. They got by against the Jets, and they'll try to stay above water against the Bears on a short week, but they desperately need experience at guard moving forward. Van Roten suffered a thigh injury in Week 3, so his status bears watching sooner than later.

Assuming those three players -- Hollins, Doubs, and Van Roten -- end up being activated off IR, that would bring the Patriots to six of their eight spots. With just two spots remaining, the Patriots will have decisions to make.

Despite being a backup, Dell Pettus (ankle) ranks high on the list because the Patriots do not have much safety depth at all. Starters Kevin Byard and Craig Woodson are both questionable for Thursday night's game vs. the Bears, and Woodson has already missed a game this year. The team might be comfortable with Jaylen Reed/Mike Brown/Elliott Davison as backups, but if either Woodson or Byard have to miss time, Pettus would be their best option.

Gilliam, too, is another logical choice. That has less to do with his effectiveness in his four games played and more to do with the fact that the Patriots pursued him in free agency and likely envisioned a significant blocking role for him in the running game. Yet considering he only averaged 14.5 snaps per game, and considering Cameron Latu may be a suitable replacement as a blocker, perhaps the Patriots ultimately won't make the call to activate Gilliam.

Hutchins and Jacobs rank in the middle of the list for reasons similar to Pettus: a lack of depth at their respective positions. Yet with so many other players already needed, it would be a bit of a surprise for the Patriots to activate their seventh-round pass rusher (Hutchins) or undrafted linebacker (Jacobs) over them.

Baringer, who got hurt during the preseason finale, may be a victim of circumstance if he heals from his lower-body injury, just by virtue of playing an extremely replaceable position. Mitch Wishnowsky has filled in and has arguably performed better than Baringer, so the team really can't afford to use one of its eight spots on a punter.

The unknown future injuries

To reiterate, this is the NFL. Injuries are, unfortunately, inevitable. And with the Patriots limping into their Week 7 game in Chicago, more injuries await in the coming dozen weeks.

And while the team can't know which players will get hurt to varying degrees in that remaining time, they do have to consider the need to keep one or two of those IR spots available in the event that anyone from the group of Drake Maye, Christian Gonzalez, Milton Williams, any pass rusher, Rhamondre Stevenson, Hunter Henry, Eli Raridon, Will Campbell, Morgan Moses, Christian Elliss, Robert Spillane, or either starting safety needs a trip to IR.

Two more for postseason

This part is significant: Teams can activate two more players off IR in the postseason. So, in the very likely event that the Patriots activate eight players from IR during the season, and the nearly just-as-likely event that a player suffers an injury late in the season that requires an IR trip, the Patriots will be able to activate that player in the postseason.

They did that last season, after Hollins suffered a late-season injury that was later revealed to have been a lacerated spleen. He was activated off IR before the AFC Championship Game in Denver.

That, however, is a problem for another day. If the injuries continue to mount for New England the way they have already, then the postseason may be the farthest thing from the team's mind while trying to navigate the months of November and December.

Occasionally, teams need to weigh these kinds of decisions for IR activations at some point in a season. Typically, that's much later than Week 7. Yet that is the reality for the 2026 Patriots, a team that seemingly can't get through a game without losing multiple key players.