Why Patriots Didn’t Address Biggest Perceived Draft Need

Entering the 2023 NFL Draft, offensive tackle was viewed as one of the New England Patriots’ biggest needs, if not the biggest. It was a position they had to address, if not with their first-round pick, then certainly on Day 2.

Instead, the Patriots went all seven rounds without drafting a single tackle. Twelve picks in all — the franchise’s most in any draft since 2010 — yet none to fill what many viewed as their most glaring roster hole.

Why? Because, according to director of player personnel Matt Groh, the Patriots believed they’d already assembled a solid depth chart through free agency and didn’t view the position as a draft-day priority.

Last month, the Patriots signed veterans Riley Reiff and Calvin Anderson and re-signed Conor McDermott and Yodny Cajuste. They also return Trent Brown and 2022 seventh-round draft pick Andrew Stueber, who will be a training camp wild card after missing his entire rookie season with an injury.

Brown and Reiff project as the two starters — both have experience at left and right tackle — with Anderson and McDermott competing for the top backup spot. McDermott started New England’s final six games at right tackle last season and held his own, and Anderson made seven starts for Denver in 2022. Brown and Reiff have been starters throughout their respective careers, but both have lengthy injury histories — Reiff missed at least one game in each of the last seven seasons — and neither is under contract beyond 2023.

“We signed three guys in free agency at the position,” Groh said Saturday night in his post-draft video conference. “We re-signed Conor … signed Calvin Anderson and then with Riley. So, we’ve got a lot of bodies there right now. I wouldn’t really want to take any (away) of the guys that we got. You know, do I want to take Christian Gonzalez off this team and add a tackle? Those are the decisions you’ve got to make. We could have drafted a tackle in the first round, and I’m sure the question would be: Well, did you address corner?

“There’s only so many picks and certainly only so many picks up front, so I think we definitely got a lot of good guys there to work with.”

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The Patriots had a chance to take Georgia’s Broderick Jones, the last of this year’s top-tier tackle prospects, at No. 14 overall, but they traded back three spots and selected Gonzalez, a highly touted cornerback who had been projected as a top-10 pick. Oklahoma’s Anton Harrison and Syracuse’s Matthew Bergeron both came off the board between No. 17 and 46. The Patriots used that pick on Georgia Tech defensive end Keion White, whom they reportedly considered taking in the first round. Another potential Patriots tackle fit, Alabama’s Tyler Steen, went to Philadelphia at No. 65, 11 spots before the Patriots grabbed third-round linebacker/safety Marte Mapu out of Sacramento State.

Groh said the Patriots considered trading up at different points in the draft, but it’s unclear whether they did so with a tackle in mind.

New England did make three additions to their O-line during the draft, but all three are interior players: Troy’s Jake Andrews and Eastern Michigan’s Sidy Sow in Round 4 and UCLA’s Atonio Mafi in Round 5. Andrews is a center/guard prospect who will be a strong candidate for the top backup spot behind David Andrews, while Sow and Mafi both are big-bodied, powerful guards who hew closer to the Mike Onwenu body type than the undersized interior linemen in the 305-310 pound range that the Patriots traditionally have targeted.

Sow, though, could also factor into New England’s offensive tackle conversation. Forty-four of his 55 starts at Eastern Michigan came at left guard, but he did start 11 games at left tackle early in his collegiate career and has the size to play outside at 6-foot-5, 323 pounds. The Quebec native also boasts high-end athletic traits, with a vertical jump, broad jump and 40-yard dash that ranked in the 86th percentile or better among all O-linemen and a 71st-percentile three-cone drill, per Mockdraftable.

“Sidy does have some background at left tackle,” said Groh, who later added the Patriots don’t plan to move Onwenu back to tackle. “He’s been a guard here the last couple years. He’s not a little guy. He’s got plenty of athleticism. He’s got plenty of power. So we’ll see how it goes and try and find the best spot for him.”

Emphasizing defense and special teams over offense was one of the prevailing themes of the Patriots’ draft. The only offensive players they selected were the three aforementioned linemen and sixth-round receivers Kayshon Boutte and Demario Douglas. They ignored offensive weapons until late on Day 3 and didn’t take a single tight end despite this being viewed as a historically deep class at the position.

Bill Belichick, Groh and the rest of the Patriots’ decision-makers clearly believe the moves the team made in free agency — they added wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster, tight end Mike Gesicki and running back James Robinson in addition to Reiff and Anderson — will give Mac Jones and new coordinator Bill O’Brien enough pieces to get their struggling offense back on track.