The time for preseason prognostication is almost over with the Patriots set to take on the Bengals on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

We’ve endured months of 53-man roster projections and a starting quarterback battle to get to this point, but there are still major questions that Week 1 will answer about the Patriots’ depth chart.

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Here are four starting battles that will be settled when the Patriots take the field in Cincinnati:

Wide receiver

There are four starting wide receiver candidates, and DeMario Douglas will be in the slot.

That’s about all we know about the wide receiver roles, of which even players were in the dark about this week.

Beyond Douglas, Tyquan Thornton, K.J. Osborn and rookie Ja’Lynn Polk also saw reps with the first-team offense this summer. Thornton appeared to be the top candidate for the starting “X” role, though Polk and Osborn can also play that position. Osborn and Polk essentially shared the “Z” role over the last few weeks of training camp.

New England Patriots wide receiver DeMario Douglas (3) stretches as the Patriots take practice at Gillette on Aug. 22. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

There’s also the question of how many wide receivers the Patriots will dress in Sunday’s game. Expect Douglas, Thornton, Osborn and Polk to all be active and play significant roles. Rookie Javon Baker and second-year-pro Kayshon Boutte are lower on the depth chart. It wouldn’t be surprising if just one or neither player was active on Sunday.

Baker brings higher upside but was difficult to depend on late this summer. Boutte has more experience, though he only played sparingly as a rookie in 2023.

Left tackle

The Patriots seemed set to start Vederian Lowe at left tackle until he suffered an abdomen injury before the Patriots’ preseason finale, kicking Chukwuma Okorafor from right tackle to left tackle, Mike Onwenu from right guard to right tackle and rookie Layden Robinson from the bench to right guard. Got all that? Good. It gets even more complicated.

Lowe didn’t practice until this Wednesday, when he appeared very limited. He saw his participation increase during Thursday’s practice, but it still wouldn’t be surprising if he served a backup or rotational role in Sunday’s game.

The fourth option to start at tackle, behind Lowe, Okorafor and Onwenu, is rookie Caedan Wallace. Wallace will likely be a swing tackle to start the season as the Patriots dress eight offensive linemen for games.

Left guard

The Patriots are in a similar situation at left guard. Sidy Sow suffered an ankle injury in the preseason finale, where he was replaced by Michael Jordan.

Jordan made the initial 53-man roster but was cut the next day and signed to the practice squad. Early in the week, it appeared that Nick Leverett, who spent most of the summer at center, would replace Sow at left guard. Jordan and Leverett have now been sharing snaps at the left guard position.

It would be surprising if Jordan was not at least elevated from the practice squad for Sunday’s game. It’s not out of the question that he could start from that elevation, however.

New England Patriots head coach Jarod Mayo looks over at Nick Leverett during training camp at Gillette Stadium. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

Leverett had a brilliant analogy when asked how the transition has been from guard to center and back to guard.

“Say you buy a big dually F250, right? Nice,” Leverett said. “And then you’ve got it ready to tow and everything and then they tell you, ‘OK, we want you to put this on the racetrack now and race.’ Then you gotta, ‘OK, well, let’s change the tires up, let’s tune it a little bit’ to get it go to get up to speed to compete with the other cars that are going to be out there on the racetrack. So you do all that fine-tuning and everything, and then it’s like, ‘OK, now we want you back to towing.’ So now we’ve got to change the tires, we’ve got to tune it again to get more output out of it and everything. So, that’s kind of where it’s at now, just trying to do the fine-tuning to get back to playing guard while still being able to keep my center stuff under wraps, as well.”

If Jordan starts, then Leverett could be counted on as a super sub at left guard, center and right guard. He was also a starting left tackle in college.

Defensive tackle

Davon Godchaux is the Patriots’ starting nose tackle.

It gets dicey after that.

Daniel Ekuale is the favorite to start in Christian Barmore’s place at defensive tackle, but Jeremiah Pharms Jr. had a strong summer in training camp and preseason and could be viewed as more of a stout run defender than Ekuale, who has mostly been used as a situational pass rusher in his career.

The Patriots claimed Eric Johnson off waivers from the Colts, but all of the team’s late-summer additions, including offensive linemen Demontrey Jacobs and Zach Thomas and linebacker Curtis Jacobs, are still playing catchup.

The Patriots could elevate Trysten Hill off of the practice squad to serve as additional depth. Hill looks significantly lighter than Godchaux, Ekuale, Pharms and Johnson, however, and also isn’t an ideal fit as an early-down starter.