How Patriots’ Two Trades Underscored Biggest Offseason Error
That old saying “You get what you pay for” neatly sums up the Patriots’ current offensive tackle conundrum.
There was no bigger positional weakness on last season’s New England squad than right tackle. Improving at that spot was widely viewed as one of the team’s top offseason priorities, if not the single biggest.
But rather than bringing in one of the several big-name free agent tackles (Orlando Brown, Mike McGlinchey, Kaleb McGary, etc.) or using a premium draft pick to address that clear and obvious need, Bill Belichick went bargain shopping.
The Patriots re-signed Conor McDermott, signed Riley Reiff and Calvin Anderson, and drafted Sidy Sow in the fourth round.
McDermott, Reiff and Anderson all began the 2022 season as backups. Sow hadn’t started a game at tackle since 2018, having exclusively played guard for his final four seasons at Eastern Michigan. The only other internal option, outside of starting left tackle Trent Brown, was Andrew Stueber, a 2022 seventh-round pick who missed his entire rookie year with an injury.
Fast forward a few months, and that risky approach already is threatening to undermine Bill O’Brien’s new Patriots offense.
Reiff struggled, was moved to guard and now is hurt. McDermott struggled, was demoted and now is hurt. Anderson has not practiced since the spring, missing all of training camp and the preseason with a mysterious illness. Sow has been inconsistent — not especially surprising for a rookie whose last start at tackle came before the Patriots’ most recent playoff win. Stueber has been flat-out bad.
The Patriots acknowledged this clear roster hole Sunday by swinging a pair of late-summer trades for tackles. They sent running back Pierre Strong to Cleveland for Tyrone Wheatley Jr. and reportedly shipped a 2024 sixth to Minnesota for Vederian Lowe.
Both of those newcomers have potential, but neither is remotely close to a sure thing. The 26-year-old Wheatley is on his fourth team in three years — not counting a stint in the now-defunct Spring League in 2021 — and has yet to make his regular-season NFL debut. Wheatley drew positive reviews for his play this preseason and can play either tackle spot.
Lowe has more pro experience, but not by much. Drafted in the sixth round last year, he played just 33 offensive snaps as a Vikings rookie. Before that, he made 45 collegiate starts, all at left tackle, while playing under ex-Patriots assistant Bret Bielema at Illinois. Most of Lowe’s limited NFL snaps came on the left side, too, including 129 of the 140 he played this preseason, per Pro Football Focus.
Frankly, it would be a pleasant surprise if either newcomer panned out. The Patriots traded for three O-linemen around this same time in 2019 (Russell Bodine, Jermaine Eluemunor and Korey Cunningham) and another in 2021 (Yasir Durant). Those four went on to start just nine total games for New England (eight by Eluemunor), and Bodine was cut a week after he arrived.
Either way, the fact of the matter is the Patriots are less than two weeks away from facing the Philadelphia Eagles’ vaunted front seven in Week 1 (NFL-high 70 sacks last season), and we still have no idea who will start opposite Brown at right tackle.
Will they trust Sow with that responsibility? Do they think there’s a chance Anderson could return in time? Will one of the new guys become an instant starter? Reiff and McDermott seemed to have fallen out of favor even before their respective injuries. It surely won’t be Stueber, who nearly got Mac Jones killed two weeks ago and allowed another strip sack in last Friday’s preseason finale.
The best bet might be moving Mike Onwenu over from right guard (assuming he’ll be healthy enough to play after making his 2023 practice debut last week) and plugging in fifth-round rookie Atonio Mafi to replace him inside. But Belichick and his staff refused to make that switch last season, unflinching in their desire to keep Onwenu at his natural position even as they cycled through ineffective right tackles.
It’s also worth noting the Patriots essentially are entering the season with zero reliable depth at tackle, which they’ll undoubtedly need at some point. The last time both of their starters made it through a full season without missing a handful of games was 2016 when Nate Solder and Marcus Cannon both started all but one.
It’s a bad place to be, and a seemingly avoidable one. Stud tackles aren’t easy to find, but the Patriots could and should have invested more resources into this perilously constructed position group.