It’s been a long offseason for New England Patriots rookie edge rusher Gabe Jacas. Medical concerns and a contract dispute led to him missing a significant amount of time, and even now that he’s on the field, Jacas has been a disappointment.
Those struggles continued into the preseason game on Thursday night against the Cleveland Browns. In particular, one play where Jacas bit on a read option and allowed Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel to run for a first down.
This comes after Jacas also struggled in the first two preseason games for the Patriots. He had 9 total tackles in the first two preseason games. Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago, head coach Mike Vrabel called him out.
“It needs to be better,” Vrabel said. “It was better whenever we practiced, Saturday, I guess, than it was in the game. We pointed some things out to him in the game.”
New England Patriots Fans Ripped Gabe Jacas
Expectations were high when the New England Patriots first used a second-round pick on Gabe Jacas. He was even someone who was expected to make a major impact on the defense early in the season. Now, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen amid growing online concern from fans.
“Maybe Gabe Jacas just sucks? I’ve never seen a Patriots player make the same exact mistake so many times,” one fan wrote.
Another fan joked, “Saturn is literally in Retrograde. What do you expect from Gabe Jacas man?”
Jacas was a First-Team All-Big Ten selection last season while he was with Illinois. In 12 games during the 2025 season, he had 13.5 tackles for a loss and 11.o sacks. That’s production that the Patriots had hoped would translate to the NFL quickly after that was a point of weakness during their Super Bowl run.
It wasn’t just fans who expressed their concerns about Jacas. Boston Herald reporter Doug Kyed added his own concerns about the Patriots’ depth because of how poorly Jacas has been playing.
“The thought of Jacas being the top backup at OLB to start the season is a bit scary,” Kyed wrote.
Patriots, Gabe Jacas Warned About His Injury History
A knee injury that popped up after the NFL Draft and needed some work done this offseason became a major issue for the Patriots and Jacas. In fact, that was a big piece of why they struggled to sign him to a contract.
That knee issue is something that Dr. David Chao, who was previously the head physician for the Los Angeles Chargers, recently addressed. It was far from a positive update.
“Yes, it’s a big deal,” Dr. David Chao said. “If you said a kid has a large osteochondral lesion, I would be downgrading his draft grade score, and sight unseen, warning general managers that this guy might not have a long NFL career.”
This is the kind of knee injury that makes teams not trust a player for long-term contracts. That, obviously, is going to be a problem down the line for Jacas. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll never find success. It’s just a harder path to get there.
“It’s not a ‘don’t touch,’ but it’s a ‘stop and consider.’ If you took an over-under on him, it would be a victory if he made it to a second contract,” Chao said.
Patriots Fans Rip Rookie Gabe Jacas Amid Struggles in Preseason