upgraded to a full participant<\/a> on Thursday \u2014 another indication his return is near.<\/p>\n\u201cIt feels so good being around my teammates again,\u201d Tonga said. \u201cIt sucked to watch them ball out and not be able to be there, but so fun to be back in the groove and getting the hang of things again with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 29-year old was one of the Patriots biggest surprises to begin the year. Prior to his injury, Tonga had started a career-high eight games and set personnel bests in pressures (14) and run stops (13) as the nose tackle became a key figure along the interior of New England\u2019s defensive line that paced the league\u2019s best run defense.<\/p>\n
His presence back up front this week would be meaningful against a Texans rushing attack that prefers to get downhill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s always fun, especially in the test as a d-lineman,\u201d Tonga said. \u201cI think it\u2019ll be a fun matchup, we look forward to that matchup here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonga also took on a role on offense as the team\u2019s fullback, something that he could resume on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they need me to do it, I\u2019ll do it,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Khyiris Tonga has missed the team\u2019s last three games with a foot injury. But, the Patriots defensive lineman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,91604,12136,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-681650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-playoffs","13":"tag-new-england-patriots-injuries","14":"tag-newengland","15":"tag-newenglandpatriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115904615951671572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}