I think the depth expectations for OL seem unrealistic.

[rkarp1]

 

[BennyBledsoe]

All young OL are going to have growing pains. You just got to hope they get smoothed out sooner rather than later.

 

[Ross12]

How many teams have more than 2 reserve IOL and 2 reserve OT capable of spot-starting on their roster? Seems like the Pats have that in Van Roten/Brown/Bryant/Lomu, which I have to imagine is as good as most other teams in the league. Crownover might even be one more dude capable of throwing in there.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

Reports on him are all over the place. One day he looks "stronger". The next day he's getting "walked back" by Jacas. Another day is that his technique is "night and day" from his rookie season. Then he struggles again.

The media can’t pick a side. Opening night will tell us a lot.

It's not always on the media to "pick a side". There's a place for analysis and opinion/projections but there's also a place for just reporting what happened in practice that day as it went. Sounds like he's just been inconsistent.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

How many teams have more than 2 reserve IOL and 2 reserve OT capable of spot-starting on their roster? Seems like the Pats have that in Van Roten/Brown/Bryant/Lomu, which I have to imagine is as good as most other teams in the league. Crownover might even be one more dude capable of throwing in there.

Calling Bryant a capable spot starter seems like projection but otherwise agree. You always want to churn the roster over and ideally you have a starter-capable backup at every spot but that's not super realistic. A 1st round pick, 2 guys who have starting experience in the NFL without being unplayable and an intriguing developmental guy is a pretty solid reserve OL group.