FOXBOROUGH – Mack Hollins has still been around plenty, but it’s hard to deny his missing presence on the field is clear.

After all, he’s 6’4,” 220 lbs. and entertaining as hell.

New England has continued winning without him, but now as the stakes get higher, the receiver room needs to step up in order to replace some of the leadership and physicality that Hollins brought between the white lines.

Motivation is never an issue when the season is on the line, but making sure this magical run continues so Hollins can participate in it and (hopefully) push the Patriots to a Super Bowl is something the very close-knit group is taking to heart.

I spoke with (just about) the entire group on Thursday about that sentiment. Here’s what each of them had to say:

Stefon Diggs: “Yeah man, we just miss him right now. He means a lot. He does way more than just the football portion. He’s a positive reinforcement. He’s good energy. He’s a fucking hell of a hard worker, so we miss him and we’re gonna do everything we can to play enough football so he gets back, 100%. He’s been part of this the whole season, of course we want our brother back, obviously. Right now, we’ve got to take care of the business in front of us, but I’m going to do everything I can to win the game and hopefully, we can win enough games – focus on this one – but, win enough games so we can get him back.”

Pop Douglas: “FOR SURE. Fo’ sho, we definitely got to get my boy back out there and get a piece of this. Fo’ sho, definitely going out there, playing for my guy and hopefully he can come be part of a Super Bowl run. He’s still been definitely locked in with us. He’s been going through with us day-by-day and taking it week-by-week. but he’s still been a good leader and helping us keep that energy.”

Kayshon Boutte: “I mean, yeah. The goal obviously is to win a Super Bowl. If we take care of what we gotta take care of, he’s gonna be back along the way. Obviously, it sucks that we lost one of our best guys. He’s a leader for us on and off the field, but at the end of the day, we’ve still got to go out there with or without him and try to get the job done. It was first hearing about it, I was like ‘damn, we lost a big piece to our offense,’ but as they say, next man up. Somebody’s got to make plays. We just gotta take care of business for him. It’s been important that he’s still been around.”

Kyle Williams: “For sure. We obviously want to take it one game at a time, but the receiver room, we’re on a mission to take it as far as we can until we get Mack back. We want Mack to experience this. He’s been here (to the playoffs) a couple times. I don’t know his record, but we want him to experience this with us just as much as he wants to too. He’s a great vet, a great leader. Just because we don’t feel his presence on the field, we still feel his presence off the field, in the meeting rooms. We obviously miss him on the field, but he’s still been that same guy in meetings and in the locker room. He’s doing a great job of just leading us.”

The closeness of the 2025 Patriots has been night and day compared to the last few seasons. The idea that this already talented group (that’s far exceeded expectations) has even more added motivation for one of their brothers heading into Sunday night should be a scary prospect for the Chargers.