FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Cornerback Stephon Gilmore will miss his first regular-season game in three seasons when the New England Patriots visit AFC East-leading Buffalo on Sunday.

Gilmore, who has been dealing with a knee injury, was downgraded to out Saturday, along with rookie safety Kyle Dugger (ankle) and offensive lineman Justin Herron (ankle).

They join receivers Julian Edelman and N’Keal Harry, who were previously ruled out for Sunday. Edelman had a surgical procedure on his ailing knee this week and Harry is still recovering from the concussion he sustained in the Patriots’ loss to the 49ers.

The reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Gilmore has started all six games this season. He has 20 tackles and one interceptions in 2020.

The Patriots have lost three straight games.

GILMORE IS RUMORED to be on the trade block. and according to the Los Angeles Times the three-time Pro Bowler just listed his home for $999,000.

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Gilmore’s house is just a five-minute drive from Gillette Stadium.

Gilmore spent five seasons with the Buffalo Bills before inking a five-year, $65-million deal with the Patriots in 2017. The 30-year-old helped the team win a Super Bowl in 2018 and also led the league in interceptions last season.

THE PATRIOTS will be without wide receiver Julian Edelman for at least three weeks.

The Patriots are placing Edelman on the injured reserve after the receiver underwent knee surgery Thursday.

The 34-year-old was ruled out of Sunday’s matchup in Buffalo, but now he’ll also miss the Patriots upcoming matchup with the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens. If all goes well in his recovery, Edelman is eligible to come off the injured reserve and play in Week 11 when the Pats travel to Houston.

This news isn’t ideal, but not a surprise considering Edelman has been limited in every practice this season.

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Despite playing with a knee injury, Edelman still leads the Patriots in receiving yards (315), targets (39) and receptions (21). On Friday, Bill Belichick said the hope is that Edelman will come back stronger after the surgery. The Patriots coach added he didn’t think it was a season-ending injury, but only time will tell when Edelman can return.

The Patriots now head into Buffalo with receivers Damiere Byrd, Jakobi Meyers and Gunner Olszewski on their game-day roster. The Pats also ruled N’Keal Harry out with a concussion on Friday. The team also has three receivers on their practice squad — Isaiah Zuber, Kristian Wilkerson and Mason Kinsey.

“It’s always tough to see a teammate go down and have to go through surgery,” Byrd said on Friday. “We are always here to lift him up and just hope he gets through this time well and has a good recovery. Football is a team sport. People go down. This is just an opportunity for us to step up, especially myself. Being able to prepare this week, going out and helping our team win.”

The Patriots will also be without their No. 1 cornerback, Stephon Gilmore, as the team downgraded the Pro Bowler to out on Saturday. Gilmore suffered a knee injury in Thursday’s practice and didn’t participate the next day.

The Patriots also downgraded safety Kyle Dugger (ankle) and offensive lineman Justin Herron (ankle) to out as well. Both rookies were limited practice participants this past week.

SPEAKING TO Charlie Weis on Sirius XM Saturday morning, Bill Belichick offered a blunt assessment of New England’s roster and salary cap situation.

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“We’re playing more young players than we’ve played in the past,” he said, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “A combination of reasons. We were pretty heavily invested in our team in the past few years. From a salary cap standpoint, we didn’t have much flexibility at all. I think that was obvious on the Cam Newton contract. Then we had some opt-outs, so we lost some players there that would normally have been going us significant amount of play time.

“And then like every year, a couple of guys are banged up and we’ve missed some guys here and there in certain games. I think when you combine it all together there is opportunity there and some of that opportunity has gone to younger players. Again, because of our cap situation – in this particular year, this is kind of the year that we’ve taken to, I would say, adjust our cap from the spending that we’ve had in accumulation of prior years. We just haven’t been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that we’ve had in some other years.”

THE MOST successful passing stretch of the past two weeks came when Julian Edelman completed two throws in the fourth quarter against Denver. Yes, it’s been that bad.

Edelman is out Sunday after havinh a procedure on his knee earlier in the week and won’t be slinging any more passes Sunday. But it’s worth noting young wideout Jakobi Meyers started his career as a college quarterback. Running back James White also completed a 35-yard pass last season.

Non-quarterback passing plays are still an option.

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