At this rate, the New England Patriots will need to draft a brand new offensive line.
Yeah, I thought that those O Line Picks were pretty lousy, and said so at the time.
I believe that Rumors of Nate "Universal" Solder's demise will prove to be exaggerated, however, despite a rough start: Growth rarely happens in a straight line, and Solder's been improving each Year.
I don't see anything wrong with the Stork and Fleming picks so far, though they weren't the ones I had targeted. I don't think you tear up the line and start over. I think you keep tinkering with it until it gels. Look at the Bears and Steelers - horrible OLs for years, and now playing pretty well. Some of it was health, some of it player development, some of it replacement weak links and upgrading talent.
I think that center (as Grid has often said) is the key position on the line. The center makes all the line calls and is responsible for getting everyone in position. Some of the film breakdown shows that the Pats linemen weren't in good position on many plays. Someone posted on the main board (I can't find the link, but will keep looking) that historically Connolly has been considered weak in terms of his line calls. That could be a big factor in terms of the overall play of the line of true, and part of the reason why the line looked so much better with Stork in at center.
Tedy Bruschi said in his chat yesterday that Stork isn't ready, but I'm praying that he gets ready in a hurry and solidifies the center position. Get your C and your LT cset, and work out the rest - if Stork is set and the line calls are better than I think Solder will improve, and then I think you just tinker with the line and fine the combo that works best for right now. Assuming that Devey doesn't do a dramatic turnaround, the options would be:
Solder-Cannon-Stork-Connolly-Vollmer
Solder-Connolly-Stork-Cannon-Vollmer
Solder-Vollmer-Stork-Connolly-Cannon
Solder-Cannon-Stork-Fleming-Vollmer
Solder-Connolly-Stork-Fleming-Vollmer
Solder-Vollmer-Stork-Fleming-Cannon
Try to get Stork up to speed and solidify the line, then find the best combo that works, and let things settle down. Then you can figure out who needs to be upgraded for 2015.