Mac Jones has been scrambling to keep plays alive and make something happen for the new-look New England offense for much of the summer.
Now, with the regular season opener against the sack-happy Eagles less than two weeks away, the Patriots are scrambling to upgrade their offensive line in an effort to keep the pocket passer Jones protected enough so a second straight season doesn’t fall apart thanks to an inept offense.
With preseason games and training camp practices in the books, Bill Belichick and Matt Groh finally if halfheartedly addressed needs at offensive tackle with a pair of low-level trades over the weekend. First, New England swapped second-year former fourth-round running back Pierre Strong Jr.
to the Browns for tackle Tyrone Wheatley Jr. Hours later, the Patriots sent a sixth-round draft pick to the Vikings for another depth tackle in Vederian Lowe.
Interestingly both players measure in at 6-6, 320 pounds and were rotational options at best in their previous NFL career stops this summer. Wheatley is a 26-year-old who’s never played in an NFL game, while the undrafted Lowe played 33 snaps in four games as a rookie for the Vikings last fall.
Neither is a proven commodity by any means. But they have potential. And at this desperate point, that’s more than good enough for New England.
To say the Patriots offensive line and tackle position in particular has been a disaster this summer would be disrespectful to disasters.
Issues up front have limited what the skill players could do on the practice and game fields. It forced the quarterbacks to improvise way more often than they should have to or are even physically capable of.
Suddenly, Belichick and the Patriots admitted in both their actions and words that they “needed” to do something about the tackle position. And they absolutely did. Of course critics would argue that need has been obvious for years. Since the last time New England invested significantly at the position with the selection of Isaiah Wynn in the first round back in 2018 even.
Since and because that didn’t really work out, the needs on the ends of the line have only grown. Yet New England has not taken a tackle in the first two days of the draft since Yodny Cajuste in 2019. There’s been no significant financial or trade investment, either, other than bringing Brown back to Foxborough.
This offseason, when many proclaimed cornerback and tackle to be the team’s biggest needs, the additions at tackle were journeyman veteran Riley Reiff, former practice squader Calvin Anderson and latter-round developmental draft picks with position versatility.
As is so often the case, especially in the NFL at marquee positions like tackle, you get what you pay for. Low-level investment brings low-level returns.
And that’s why Belichick and Groh are scrambling to try to fix a major problem on the line that threatens to derail the offense and derail the season. That’s why Jones has had to scramble far more often than anyone would want on the practice and game fields this summer.
The first step toward fixing a problem is admitting you have it. The Patriots did that with the trades for Wheatley and Lowe. But that doesn’t mean they have fixed the problem by any means. If anything, the two additions bring even more questions along the line than were there two days ago as first-year position coach Adrian Klemm tries to figure out the guys he’ll have to work with on the 53-man roster and which guys are most capable and ready to face the Eagles on opening day, a team that oh by the way led the NFL in sacks by 15 a year ago.
Here’s hoping that Belichick and Groh have better luck scrambling than Jones usually does. Otherwise, it could be a long year for everyone involved.