MORSE: Thoughts on Patriots' Offensive Line Dilemma

Offensive Tackle Dilemma

The Patriots made two trades on Sunday for help at Offensive Tackle. They acquired Tyrone Wheatley Jr., a 6’6” 320 lbs Swing Tackle from Cleveland, and shipped the speed running back Pierre Strong in exchange. The 2^nd year, 4^th round pick seemed to fall out of favor with the team after a mediocre pre-season. Wheatley played TE in college and very limited at that.

The Patriots had him in for an evaluation last season but didn’t sign him. I will say the limited video I have seen on him from this Pre-season looks good and I saw a report that Pro Football Focus had an 88.4 grade on him this Pre-season. That was the 4^th highest in the league.

The second trade was for 2^nd year OT Vederian Lowe another 6’6” 320 lbs tackle. Lowe played at Illinois and started 52 games over his career, making the Big Ten Honorable Mention All-Conference team. The second-year player was a 6^th round pick (#184) in 2022. Lowe was the Vikings backup Left Tackle and can play Right Tackle as well. Lowe played in 4 games last season and finished the final game at left Tackle playing 33 snaps. He also contributed on Special Teams with another 20 snaps. The Pats gave up a 6th round pick for him.

What does this mean?

Conor McDermott and Reilly Reiff are both hurt. I don’t have McDermott making the team and he might be put on IR before the 53-man roster is set, meaning that he would be out for the season, ineligible to be recalled during the season. Reiff hurt his knee on Friday against Tennessee and if it’s an ACL tear, his career could be over.

The signing of these two tackles indicates these two players may not be part of the team’s plans anymore. The erratic Trent Brown hasn’t really played any competitive snaps this pre-season. Could he possibly be a candidate to be cut?

Rookie Sidy Sow is just not ready. He is moving from OG to OT and has struggled with the footwork necessary to counter speed rushers. The 6’ 5” 318 lbs. lineman is learning the nuances of playing the OT position. His play during the pre-season gave him valuable reps to learn from, but he is not ready to protect the QB.

Offensive Guard Issues

Cole Strange and Michael Owenu do not appear to be ready to play. Strange has dressed but not participated in workouts. Owenu just came off the PUP list last week and has taken only limited reps in non-contact drills.

Could the Patriots be forced to start rookie Antonio Mafi at RG and second-year player Chasen Hines at Left Guard? Mafi has limited experience playing O-line. He was recruited as a Nose Tackle at UCLA and converted to G in 2020, started 3 games in 2021 and started all 13 games in his senior season. He was second-team PAC 10 all-conference in 2022.

Hines was a 2022 draft pick taken in the 7^th round, #210. He played 3 seasons at LSU, starting 17 games, and parts of 33 games. In the 2019 season he was the backup Center behind All-American Lloyd Cushenberry.

We all knew the Offensive Line was the one area of concern that we would be watching this Pre-season and it’s been an absolute train wreck. Bill Belichick is panicking now because he ignored the need for Ots in the draft or earlier in the Pre-season. He tried to add low-cost Free Agents (Reiff and Calvin Anderson). How could he anticipate that Anderson would be sick and that the 34-year-old Reiff, entering his 12^th season in the league would get hurt?

We’ll see how it all works out, but there are definitely some serious questions up front for the Patriots heading into the regular season.

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About Mark Morse

Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.

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Tags: Antonio Mafi Chasen Hines Cole Strange Conor McDermott Mike Onwenu Pierre Strong Jr. Riley Reiff Sidy Sow Tyrone Wheatley Jr. Vederian Lowe