Patriots Add a Center After Reaching Deal with Former Viking
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ESPN reporter Mike Reiss indicated over the weekend that the Patriots could be in play for Vikings center Garrett Bradbury if he couldn’t reach an agreement to stay in Minnesota.
On Tuesday, after Bradbury was released one day earlier, he’s now a New England Patriot.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Bradbury has reached an agreement with the Patriots on a two-year deal worth a reported $12 million, including $3.8 million guaranteed.
The former 2019 first-round pick essentially solidifies the interior of New England’s offensive line, replacing last year’s starter, Ben Brown.
Brown ended up being a bright spot in a season where that group was a mess, especially considering the Patriots found him on the Raiders’ practice squad. He ended up stepping in after David Andrews got hurt in Week 4 in San Francisco and went on to start every game and play every snap for 10 straight weeks until Cole Strange returned to action.
Strange was given some snaps at center over the final two games of the season, and it was believed he might be in play this summer to compete for the position. Instead, he’ll likely be moving back to his spot at left guard, giving the Patriots an offensive line that as of right now would essentially see Strange at left guard, Bradbury at center, Mike Onwenu at right guard, and newly signed Morgan Moses at right tackle.
Left tackle still remains a problem the club has yet to solve. New England has last year’s starter Vederian Lowe, but the hope is that they’ll find a better solution at some point this offseason. So far, there have been limited candidates in free agency, and the possibility remains that they’ll potentially target someone in next month’s draft.
But for now, they’ve added a player who should make them tougher up front against the run than they were after Andrews got hurt. It’s an interior line with some size and some tough players, which for a team that was hoping to get back to being more physical up front, Bradbury absolutely gives them that.
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Strange to LG and Bradbury to center seems logical, but with $3.8M guaranteed, there’s no depth chart set in stone here with Bradbury starting at center, or even in making the team. Bradbury supposedly rated high in the stats engine space on run blocking plays, but really really poor in terms of pass blocking. That’s if you buy into the stats engine stuff. The Vikings cut the guy. If Mayo and team were correct that Layden Robinson is going to be a good guard (he wasn’t fully ready last year as a rook), then Strange may end up competing for… Read more »