The Patriots’ offensive line is going to look a lot different in 2021.
The unit lost Joe Thuney to the Chiefs in free agency, Marcus Cannon to the Texans via trade and appears likely to lose David Andrews in free agency as well. The team did trade for Trent Brown and reportedly brought back Ted Karras all in the last week-plus.
So, the starting offensive line now should look something like this (from left-to-right): Isaiah Wynn-Michael Onwenu-Karras-Shaq Mason-Brown.
Last season, the offensive line was arguably one of the best groupings on the entire team, but that may not be the case in 2021. While the group isn’t bad by any means, it certainly has some questions.
For starters, where’s the leadership coming from? Andrews was the unquestioned leader of the group and someone everyone looked up to. Mason is the longest-tenured member of the group, but isn’t known for being a leader.
It’s also worth mentioning Dante Scarnecchia retired a year ago and while it wasn’t noticed much in 2020 thanks to the work Carmen Bricillo and Cole Popovich did, it could potentially show up now with the losses of Thuney and Andrews in the same offseason.
There are other questions as well.
How will Brown be without Scarnecchia? Will he be closer to what he was in 2018 with the Patriots or what he was last year with Las Vegas? What about Wynn? He’s entering his fourth season and being a first-round selection, it feels like he can be more than what he’s been. While Onwenu looked great last year at tackle, will he be equally as good back at his more natural position of guard? And then can Karras take his game up a notch? He was a very dependable backup during his previous time with the team, but now will be a starter.
Who knows who will be at quarterback, whether it’s Cam Newton, a rookie, or someone else. But no matter who it is, they will be relying heavily on the offensive line, so a lot of pressure will once again be on the unit.
While it lived up to expectations in 2020, it’s fair to ask can it do the same in 2021?
