If you watched the New England Patriots at all last season, the fact that the offensive tackle play must improve in 2023 isn't news to you.
For the latest on the Patriots, check out WEEI and Audacy's "1st and Foxborough."
We all saw the turnstile that was the right tackle position and saw Trent Brown have pretty shaky performances at left tackle after switching sides during the off-season. We also saw some turnovers and brutal hits on Patriots quarterbacks ensue because the tackles, especially on the right side, couldn't hold up.
That's why New England will almost certainly look hard at the growing crop of free-agent tackles hitting the market next week, including Mike McGlinchey, Jawaan Taylor and Mike McGlinchey, and at improving the position in the upcoming NFL Draft.
That said, reports out of the NFL Combine suggest the Patriots still feel "confident" in Trent Brown despite a less-consistent 2022 after moving from the right to the left side and may not view the offensive line as a dire weakness.
How can that be? A quick dive into the numbers might hold some answers.
When comparing last year's weekly Pro Football Focus average grades for each Patriots offensive line position and checking them against the league-wide averages for each spot (calculated by Quinten Krzysko of On Tap Sports Network), New England got better-than-average play at every position except one (right tackle). That's right: even Brown and Cole Strange outperformed the league average as pass protectors.
The mean pass-blocking grade for Patriots right tackles was 55.5 -- almost eight points worse than the league average of 63.4. Once Isaiah Wynn's play started to deteriorate, things went from below-average to consistently bad, though Wynn was also responsible for the worst game that position played all season (Week 4 vs. Green Bay).
But things weren't nearly as problematic on the other side.
Brown, who was the main left tackle for every Patriots game last season, had a season pass-blocking grade of 76.1, which was better than the average left tackle (72.6) by a few points.
Interestingly, Brown's grades were more consistent than any other New England offensive lineman, even the dominant Michael Onwenu. Essentially, the big left tackle was hurt by three major extreme outliers (Week 1 vs. Miami, Week 5 vs. Detroit, Week 7 vs. Chicago) and was generally pretty solid the rest of the time.
(That might largely sum up the Patriots' offensive line performance in 2022: a solid group, averaging a grade of 72.5 compared to league average of 63.4, whose bad performances were very bad.)
Those numbers suggest the Patriots only need one new tackle in 2023, not two, which helps signifcantly. They can keep Brown, find a starting-caliber tackle in free agency or the draft and plug Brown wherever he makes the most sense. (Brown was a better pass-blocker at right tackle in 2021 than he was in 2022.)
If you feel you can trust Brown to be dependable at left tackle, that could benefit New England: most of the free-agent tackles are best suited for the right side, and the top left tackles might all be off the board by the time the Patriots pick at No. 14, causing him to pivot to other options.
The bottom line, perhaps, is this: the Patriots' offensive line wasn't as bad as you thought it was in 2022, and it likely won't require too much fixing outside of getting a bona fide right tackle and receiving better coaching.
