Can the Line hold up?

[Thunderhead]

Still see no reason to be anything but extremely concerned about the OL. Seems like the clear Achilles heel of this offense and team. Expecting a blowout loss to the Eagles and a 1-3 start AT BEST, but hope to be pleasantly surprised.

 

[mgteich]

With Onwenu off PUP and starting to rehab in practice, I think he could be ready to play week 1. If not,
Then it seems it will be Reiff at RG. And I bet they start with McDermott at RT over Sow, because BB always leans to vets.
Mafi & Sow seem like top rookie backups. If Strange doesn't lock it down from the whistle, Mafi could be on his heels.
This is my prediction for 9 OL on the 53:
Brown - Strange - Andrews - Onwenu - Reiff/McD
McD - Mafi - Andrews - Reiff - Sow

This is right for the 53.

However, we will likely need to sign or activate Russey or Ferentz for Game. I don't think that Andres is ready to be counted on as the backup center.

 

[Sciz]

“Having already missed on Cardinals swing tackle Josh Jones (traded Thursday to Houston), the Pats should call about Browns swing tackle James Hudson III. The former fourth-round pick has drawn rave reviews in his third season, but if Cleveland says no, they settle for Wheatley. Hudson and Wheatley have impressed in the preseason and been schooled by the league’s best O-line coach in Bill Callahan. Capable offensive tackles are like pitching in baseball: even the best teams can’t have enough.”

“Except if you're facing a serious numbers crunch. In Cleveland, Wheatley is stuck behind starters Jedrick Willis, Jack Conklin, fourth-round rookie Dawand Jones and Hudson. Through two preseason games, he's played 61 snaps at left tackle and 37 at right tackle, per Pro Football Focus. He staved off two of the best defensive lines in the league, Washington and Philadelphia, posting an elite 95.6 run-blocking grade and 97.6 pass-blocking efficiency, both metrics scored out of 100.”

“At worst, Wheatley would provide solid, ascending depth at positions of viral importance need for the Patriots. Mac Jones was pressured on more than 40% of his dropbacks - 40! - in last week's exhibition at Green Bay. If the offensive line can't trust fourth-round rookie Sidy Sow, a career college guard now playing right tackle, it's in serious trouble.”

“The Patriots should patch their O-line by sending Cleveland their 2024 seventh-round pick that converts into one of the two sixth-rounders they own if Wheatley plays eight or more games.”

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Credit to Callahan for naming names, because that’s so rare these days. I don’t think the Patriots have generally traded for somebody based on preseason performance, though. Eluemunor, Durant, and Korey Cunningham, for example, had all started a regular season game. Wheatley is a 26 year old that still hasn’t played in a regular season game.

 

[Wozzy]

It's not an issue about why would you worry about players that won't be here. It's a concern because, as you perfectly said they haven't been healthy. Went and signed reiff and Anderson in the off season to fill a void and play important roles. Anderson had been on NFI. Reiff IMO just looks old. So I agree the young guys must step up, take the coaching and adapt quickly. Owenu was on PUP. We've had a patchwork O line all pre season and they have not even looked like and XFL O line just my opinion. However the hope is we put the healthiest 5 out there and try to hold up. Going against teams best rushers is what they'll be faced with it's part of being an O linemen .they face it everyday in practice Going against our own pass rushers!

Onwenu is slowly being worked back in, so is Trent Brown, Strange will be activated any day now, so will Russey... Calvin Anderson probably not.

Preseason is practice, the game scores are completely meaningless. In two weeks we'll have a better understanding of this line and their health.

 

[State]

Ross Tucker rates the Titans dead last in OL rankings. From what little I saw they are stronger as a group than the Patriots. 2023 Preseason NFL Offensive Line Rankings: Who Lands in the Elite Tier?
I know our starters are coming back and that will make a world of difference. But Stueber and Hines should be playing better. Ferentz is and has been a fraud for three seasons now.

Belichick felt fine rolling with this guy when Karras left. And no one seems to notice much how negligent the team has been on the OT side of things. Reiff is about to be 35. Retire, man. Anderson, not very solid. Bad luck there maybe.

Make a trade, Bill, if you want to catch Shula.

 

[Real fan 02]

Onwenu is slowly being worked back in, so is Trent Brown, Strange will be activated any day now, so will Russey... Calvin Anderson probably not.

Preseason is practice, the game scores are completely meaningless. In two weeks we'll have a better understanding of this line and their health.

Agreed, that does bring some optimism. So may the best healthiest 5 be out there!

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Either way, the best option would be to have Onwenu at RG, and Reiff at RT - at least until Sow can prove he's ready.

I agree, but Reiff might be injured. Did anyone hear anything about his leaving the game against the Titans?

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Ross Tucker rates the Titans dead last in OL rankings. From what little I saw they are stronger as a group than the Patriots.

Thanks for posting Ross Tucker's OL ratings. Ross rates the Patriots #12 and the Titans #32, but you think #32 is stronger than #12. Why do you think Ross Tucker is so wrong in his ratings?

 

[Wozzy]

Ross Tucker rates the Titans dead last in OL rankings. From what little I saw they are stronger as a group than the Patriots.

You're comparing the Titan's 1's on O-Line to the Patriots 2's, and suggesting it's a fair comparison.

 

[p8ryts]

Ross Tucker rates the Titans dead last in OL rankings. From what little I saw they are stronger as a group than the Patriots. 2023 Preseason NFL Offensive Line Rankings: Who Lands in the Elite Tier?
I know our starters are coming back and that will make a world of difference. But Stueber and Hines should be playing better. Ferentz is and has been a fraud for three seasons now.

Belichick felt fine rolling with this guy when Karras left. And no one seems to notice much how negligent the team has been on the OT side of things. Reiff is about to be 35. Retire, man. Anderson, not very solid. Bad luck there maybe.

Make a trade, Bill, if you want to catch Shula.

I'm still a glass half full. Trent Brown, Cole Strange, David Andrews, Mike Onwenu, Sow/McDermott/ Reiff. If we have 5 healthy OL that can establish stability early, we will be okay. Lot of caveats there. Health, time to jell, RT. Depth for me is Hines and Russey.

 

[Real fan 02]

I agree, but Reiff might be injured. Did anyone hear anything about his leaving the game against the Titans?

Sports illustrated reports a right knee injury. How extensive who knows? He has been a solid veteran for a long time. I'm sure he is likely contemplating retirement. (IMO) 34, so many NFL seasons, trying to recover is a difficult task for any NFL player let alone a 6'6 O lineman. So guess we'll see how this plays out.

 

[Family]

I understand that if everyone is healthy it's a good line, but in other years they could cart out an extra OL or two, and call him a tight end, plus they always had someone like Dwayne Allen, and of course Gronk to block at TE.

That's the weakness to me. Mac may have good enough position players, but even at best the depth of his blocking is not where I have seen our other championship level teams.

Plus there's a lot of guys who miss time.

 

[State]

You're comparing the Titan's 1's on O-Line to the Patriots 2's, and suggesting it's a fair comparison.

That’s a fair point. But the backups for the Titans seem to have had their act together. Can’t say the same thing about the Pats. Their backups are shaky.

 

[Real fan 02]

Ross Tucker rates the Titans dead last in OL rankings. From what little I saw they are stronger as a group than the Patriots. 2023 Preseason NFL Offensive Line Rankings: Who Lands in the Elite Tier?
I know our starters are coming back and that will make a world of difference. But Stueber and Hines should be playing better. Ferentz is and has been a fraud for three seasons now.

Belichick felt fine rolling with this guy when Karras left. And no one seems to notice much how negligent the team has been on the OT side of things. Reiff is about to be 35. Retire, man. Anderson, not very solid. Bad luck there maybe.

Make a trade, Bill, if you want to catch Shula.

Reiff to me looks like he's already retired. We have some pieces on the line.. but we need our key guys together to build cohesion. At some point something has to give.. Will Mac be running for his life all season behind this line?

 

[Wozzy]

That’s a fair point. But the backups for the Titans seem to have had their act together. Can’t say the same thing about the Pats. Their backups are shaky.

They couldn’t run the ball to save their lives, their QB threw two interceptions and despite being a running threat averaged 2 yards a carry. This with their ones on offense versus our twos or threes on D.

 

[Thelonious]

It's not the whole story, but it seems to me the O-line has been so bad that Belichick feels it is unsafe for his offense to play anything even resembling a game (including those two practices with the Titans he bailed on). I don't recall any of the commentariat ever saying anything like, "Say now, the O-line actually looked pretty good today." Maybe during our fleeting moments of glory on day 2 against - was it Houston? Brown is a slacker all too often. Our "prospects" seem thus far to be only about as good as the journeymen (a euphemism?) we took on from other teams, from their practice squads and other leavings. I find it hard to contruct an optimistic narrative about this group. The default take seems to be, "If everything goes just right and everybody stays healthy we might have five guys who might approach mediocrity." Add to this that those five (whoever they are: opinions vary) have not had any consistent playing or even practiec time together, and I don't much light at the end of the tunnel. The chance that all 5 of the guys in whom we repose hope staying health all year approach zero, if we are to be honest.

I guess my hope is that they will be good enough that we can get a true read on what we have at qb and on offense generally. Last year we learned little because the offensive coaches were bad. This year it may well be that we learn little because the o-line is so bad.

This doesn't really bother me that much. At no point this year have I felt this team is even approaching the end of its rebuild anyway. This year is about what we can learn and whom we can develop. It might have been a year we could begin actually to show something, but last year set us back in a number of respects.

I've been a fan since they were the Boston Patriots, and for many of those years they weren't very good. I still enjoyed the games and enjoyed staying on the lookout for reasons to hope. That's the experience of most fans of most teams most of the time anyway.

I have saved my topic sentence for last: The O-line blows, but that's OK, sorta.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

I know somehow I'm wrong, but it FEELS like we kept Wynn at the expense of keeping Karras. And that makes me irrationally angry. Belichick's gotten really bad at identifying OL in the past 5 years. That USED to be something I had some degree of confidence in. Not anymore.

 

[Sciz]

I know somehow I'm wrong, but it FEELS like we kept Wynn at the expense of keeping Karras. And that makes me irrationally angry. Belichick's gotten really bad at identifying OL in the past 5 years. That USED to be something I had some degree of confidence in. Not anymore.

Recognizing the irrationality is the first step toward recovery. Be angry about a real problem instead of making them up.

 

[goheels22002]

bottom line, no more "it's getting late"
it is now late.
does anyone think Onwenu ready week 1?
Does anyone think Anderson ready week 1?

assuming no on both, how do you feel about Brown-Strange-Andrews-Reiff-Sow
or
Brown-Strange-Andrews-Mafi-McDermott

It's two weeks until the Eagles - Patriots game. Big Mike Onwenu is already practicing and Strange is expected this week. It looks like we're going to see Brown - Strange - Andrews - Onwenu - Sow in the opener with help from Zeke Eliot in the backfield and veteran tight ends. This is a very different look than anything we have seen in pre-season. That feels good to me.

Anderson is an x-factor. He will need time to work his way in, but he could be a valuable part of the OL rotation by mid-October.

Look, you put Rhamondre back there along with the starting receivers and tight ends, and defenses cannot tee off on the Patriots like we saw in the Titans game. They will have to play their gaps and set the edges. It will look different.

Belichick will be looking at OL options as cuts unfold, so we can expect an addition or two.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I know somehow I'm wrong, but it FEELS like we kept Wynn at the expense of keeping Karras. And that makes me irrationally angry. Belichick's gotten really bad at identifying OL in the past 5 years. That USED to be something I had some degree of confidence in. Not anymore.

You are upset because Karras signed with another team? LOL