Have the Pats already addressed the O-line issues??

I've seen people whining and moaning about the Pats needing to fix the O-line. What these same people fail to account for is the following:

Andrews, Mason, and Jackson were all Rookies.
The O-line was never fully healthy after game 3 of the season.
Every single O-lineman with the exception of Andrews suffered some kind of injury last year. Pretty sure that is unprecedented.

Here are the injuries:
Solder - Torn Bicep - misses 12 games - IRed
Vollmer - Ankle (missed 2 games)
Stork - Concussion / Neck Issues (missed 7 games - Short-term IR)
Mason - Knee (missed 2 games)
Tre Jackson - Knee Injury (missed 3 games and play-offs)
Waddle - Shoulder (missed last game and the play-offs)
Kline - Shoulder (missed 2 games)
Wendell - Undisclosed Illness (14 games - IRed)
Fleming - Hand (missed 4 games)
Cannon - Foot (missed 4 games)

The issues with DeGuglielmo.

Here is what the Patriots have done:
Fired DeGuglielmo.
Re-Hired Scarnecchia.
Decided not to bring back Harold Nash.

With the exception of Wendell, those 10 will be back and healthy. Cannon may still be cut (and would have been if most of the board's pundits had their way). Yes, there are concerns about Stork's long term potential. However, he has changed helmets and I don't believe he had any issues the rest of the season.

Could players be upgraded? Sure.

Mason and Jackson should be the starting guards with Stork at Center. We should see a ton of improvement there.
Solder and Vollmer being 100% healthy will also provide a lot of stability.

Is there really a UFA OG who would be willing to come in for just a year or two on a rotational basis with Mason and Jackson?

Right now, I think the biggest need for the Patriots is a developmental RT who will take over from Vollmer. I see that coming through the draft.

They need to cut Cannon and then we'll talk.

Solder is an above average LT but is coming off an ominous injury, one that has a habit of recurring.
Vollmer is over the hill. At best an average RT this year, at worst, injured again.
Behind them is Cannon who has not shown he can play effectively as an NFL OL and Waddle who seems to be a backup at best.

Stork had a good rookie year and a terrible year 2, so hard to say we are all set there.
Andrews is at best last man off the bench/inactive.

Kline sucks.
Mason sucked last year. Jackson sucked last year.
I hate to think we are pinning our SB hopes on praying guys who sucked as rookies magically get better.
If they are the starters and they play next year like they did this year, we will not win a SB.

So, God no, we better not be done on the OL.

If I had to guess, I'd say that it'll work out like CB last year. They'll go sign some low-risk veterans with small signing bonuses to compete, but eventually decide that their best options were already on the roster all along.

Vollmer also suffered a concussion in the Redskins game.

Any word on whether Wendell is coming back? Retiring?

To me the issue was the dropoff from starters to backups seemed, I dunno, epic? We aren't the only team that had a lineman go out during a game (we might have had more overall), but the level of crapitude seemed higher than we would expect.

I know they typically keep the OL in-house, but after witnessing Brady get pummeled for the latter half of the year (and 20 times in the AFCCG), I don't see how they can keep messing around at that position and be content with an aging, injury prone RT and a LT coming off a season ending bicep injury.

Mitchell Scwartz was available for a very fair amount of $. (Got $6.6 APY from Chiefs. I thought he'd get ~$9m somewhere). Would've been great to grab him and trade Vollmer for a 4th (preferably to the Bucs)

Cannon (ability) and Jackson (health) are the biggest concerns ..... See no reason to think that solder can't return to 100%, Mason should excel at LG, Stork at C. Vollmer is fine for RT next year.

RG is the biggest question right now .... A Wendell/Jackson platoon is the incumbent.

Bringing in a day 2 RT prospect seems logical and a G to compete for depth as well

I'm not as down on the current situation as the piss ants .... The rookies were fine until OT injuries caused the train-wreck late in the season

TBR said:

I know they typically keep the OL in-house, but after witnessing Brady get pummeled for the latter half of the year (and 20 times in the AFCCG), I don't see how they can keep messing around at that position and be content with an aging, injury prone RT and a LT coming off a season ending bicep injury.

Mitchell Scwartz was available for a very fair amount of $. (Got $6.6 APY from Chiefs. I thought he'd get ~$9m somewhere). Would've been great to grab him and trade Vollmer for a 4th (preferably to the Bucs)

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Where do you get that they typically keep the O-line in house?? Stephen Neal, Mike Compton, Tom Ashworth, Brandon Gorin, Dan Connolly, Ryan Wendell and Brian Waters (just to name a few) all came from outside.

Not sure how you can claim they are "messing around at the position" when there are 5 of them to talk about. And, to me, the Pats look pretty set outside of adding a development RT to replace Vollmer.

You suggest trading Vollmer. But how can you be sure the Pats would get a 4th for him? As you stated, he's an aging, injury prone RT. He's also in the last year of his contract. I think a 4th might be wishful thinking.

Brady has always covered for the line. Patriots gave up double the sacks in 2008 when Brady went down compared to 2007 when he was in the lineup. Brady's quick decision making and release have helped the line look decent for many years.

Last year was a sh*tshow though. Once we lost Edleman to injury it exposed our short passing game and the line couldn't hold up for that extra second Brady needed for his WR's to get open. They doubled Gronk and our other WR couldn't beat their coverage fast enough.

I think we do need to upgrade the talent level. It clearly wasn't good enough last year. Brady had no time and there were no running lanes for the backs. Cannon can't be relied upon and I don't think he's worth his contract. It will get better with Scar coming back and the rookies with another year under their belt, but I still think either the draft needs to address the line and upgrade the talent. If there is a good tackle left in the 2nd that would make sense. There should be some good guards available in rounds 3 and 4.

Pats should use their first round pick to address the OL need.

Oh, wait...

DaBruinz said:

Where do you get that they typically keep the O-line in house?? Stephen Neal, Mike Compton, Tom Ashworth, Brandon Gorin, Dan Connolly, Ryan Wendell and Brian Waters (just to name a few) all came from outside.

Not sure how you can claim they are "messing around at the position" when there are 5 of them to talk about. And, to me, the Pats look pretty set outside of adding a development RT to replace Vollmer.

You suggest trading Vollmer. But how can you be sure the Pats would get a 4th for him? As you stated, he's an aging, injury prone RT. He's also in the last year of his contract. I think a 4th might be wishful thinking.

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Aside from Waters and Compton, those were all guys they got undrafted out of college, or picked off other teams' scrap-heaps in their 1st year/after being cut. Then groomed for a few years (typically on the practice squad) before finally seeing the field. They typically don't go for vet help in FA at all. This is what I meant and probably should've been a bit more clear. Although it obviously it helps when they hit on their OL draft picks and successfully build up the other guys.

They might look set on paper, but there's no denying both starting tackles are question marks with 1 coming off a season ending injury and the other aging + injury prone. They simply cannot let the OL become a major flaw again. Brady's been hit way too much these last 2 years.

The Vollmer trade was just an idea thrown out there. I have no idea if he'd fetch a 4th - but I wouldn't be surprised if a team thought that would be fair if they thought they could get a year or two of quality RT play out of him.

Imo it all starts upgrading left guard, it will directly benefit Solder and the Center, of course they should not stop there, tackle is a huge concern

varjao said:

Imo it all starts upgrading left guard, it will directly benefit Solder and the Center, of course they should not stop there, tackle is a huge concern

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Mason will be the LG.....book it

DaBruinz said:

Where do you get that they typically keep the O-line in house?? Stephen Neal, Mike Compton, Tom Ashworth, Brandon Gorin, Dan Connolly, Ryan Wendell and Brian Waters (just to name a few) all came from outside.

Not sure how you can claim they are "messing around at the position" when there are 5 of them to talk about. And, to me, the Pats look pretty set outside of adding a development RT to replace Vollmer.

You suggest trading Vollmer. But how can you be sure the Pats would get a 4th for him? As you stated, he's an aging, injury prone RT. He's also in the last year of his contract. I think a 4th might be wishful thinking.

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Neal, even though he would end up being released, and Wendell were signed by the Pats out of college so they didn't come from the outside. Compton, Ashworth and Gorin were signed in 2002 or before so they're probably not the best example of what the Pats typically do or don't do.

Armchair Quarterback said:

Neal, even though he would end up being released, and Wendell were signed by the Pats out of college so they didn't come from the outside. Compton, Ashworth and Gorin were signed in 2002 or before so they're probably not the best example of what the Pats typically do or don't do.

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Compton was 2001 offseason in a mid range deal.

robertweathers said:

Compton was 2001 offseason in a mid range deal.

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Yep, that's why I said 2002 or before.

IllegalContact said:

Mason will be the LG.....book it

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It was his rookie year in his first year ever in a passing offense.

Looks like impatientitis is an epidemic

Armchair Quarterback said:

Yep, that's why I said 2002 or before.

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Sorry man. I need a beer