After opting out of the 2020 season, Dont'a Hightower is back on the Patriots' roster, but there's been no official proclamation that he's playing this coming season.
On a video conference Thursday, Bill Belichick was asked if he has any sense on where Hightower is at and if he has any reason to believe he won't be on the roster come the regular season?
“With all the players that are on the roster and not here, my expectations are that they intend to play. But, we know things can change and that is always part of life and part of football," he said. "We’ll take it as it comes. But the guys that are here are working hard. They are getting better everyday. They are learning. They are physically improving with their training and conditioning and their strength and their explosion. Their fundamentals and techniques are improving. I know that a lot of the guys that aren’t here, I know they are working hard. And I know that the guys that were here for a period of time — one, two, three, four weeks — that have come here are doing the same thing. I can see that some of those guys have worked hard. They have things to work on, but I would say generally speaking the guys that have come in have come in that haven’t been here the full time have been in pretty good condition and are ready to go.
"Again, each guy has his own circumstances, so I am not going to get into that. We’ll see how it goes on some of the players that aren’t here, which there are a number of them that aren’t, but we will welcome them when they get here. It’s all voluntary, so when they are here they are here and we’ll work with them.”
Those words don't really offer much, but Belichick couldn't say he intends on Hightower playing. So, maybe he and the team are like everyone else, expecting him to play, but not really knowing for sure.
The Patriots have had OTAs this week and Thursday's is open to the media, but it doesn't sound like Hightower will be present.
