FOXBORO, Mass. — Will Trent Brown be the answer to the New England Patriots’ questions at left tackle?
The Patriots acquired Brown on Friday in a trade with the San Francisco 49ers. The 25-year-old primarily has played on the right side during his three-year NFL career but could move to the left as New England looks to identify a replacement for the departed Nate Solder.
Speaking Friday night at Gillette Stadium, Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said the team has yet to determine how it will use Brown. He did, however, note that tackles often have been asked to switch sides.
“A tackle is a tackle,” Caserio said. “I mean, some may be better on the left than they are on the right. We’ve had guys play on the right that have also played on the left. (Former Patriot) Sebastian Vollmer played left tackle at Houston, and we got him, and he was our starting right tackle. …
“Maybe one position or one side is better for the player than the other, but we’re not going to make a determination on that right now. Once he gets here, once he gets in our program, once he starts working with (offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia) and the offensive staff, then we’ll figure out where he fits relative to the rest of our players.”
Brown joins a Patriots tackle group that features Marcus Cannon, LaAdrian Waddle, Tony Garcia, Cole Croston, Andrew Jelks, Matt Tobin, Ulrick John and 2018 first-round draft pick Isaiah Wynn. The 6-foot-8, 355-pound behemoth started 26 games over the past two seasons and graded out as Pro Football Focus’ 21st-best tackle in 2017.
“He’s been a good player for San Francisco,” Caserio said. “He played for a couple different coaches, couple different systems. He played for Coach (Chip) Kelly and started 16 games in 2016, started 10 games this year for Coach (Kyle) Shanahan and his staff.
“He’s been a good player. He has a lot of experience in the league. It was a situation that we thought made sense for our team, so we went ahead and made the trade and kind of kicked the day off here.”
