Ex-Patriots Coach Believes Team Must Do This With Trent Brown

If the Patriots have Trent Brown active and on his game, their offensive line should be in decent shape.

But he was neither of those things during spring practice — a worrisome development for New England’s offensive tackle group.

Brown skipped voluntary organized team activities, missed Day 1 of minicamp due to a reported storm-related flight cancelation, then didn’t do much of anything in Tuesday’s second and final minicamp practice. He was present for warmups but spent nearly all of practice doing conditioning work on a side field.

In his absence, tackles Calvin Anderson, Conor McDermott and Riley Reiff looked overmatched at times against New England’s pass rush.

“You’ve got to get him on board, and that’s what’s important at this point.”

Dante Scarnecchia on Trent Brown, via WEEI

Former Patriots O-line coach Dante Scarnecchia, who coached Brown to the best season of his career in 2018, was asked about the situation Thursday during an appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.” His take: securing buy-in from the big-bodied bookend needs to be a priority for New England.

“All that’s happened here the last week with him not being around and coming in and not doing much, I don’t know what all that’s about, honestly,” Scarnecchia said. “… But I like the kid. I think he’s a tremendous talent, and I would love to see him be there and all in and be able to do the things that he can do to help the team.

“Because if he’s the player that he can be, then you don’t have to worry so much about that side of the line of scrimmage, specifically against pass rushers, and you can devote maybe whatever attention that needs to be devoted to the other side if they need it. So that’s where they are with him. They’ve got to get him on board or do something with him to get him to play the way that they need him to play.”

Brown has raved about Scarnecchia’s influence on him in their one season together, during which he started every game at left tackle for a Patriots team that won the Super Bowl. After returning from a two-year stint with the Las Vegas Raiders, Brown played well at right tackle during an injury-shortened 2021 campaign, but his play declined following a move back to the left side last season. He committed a team-high 13 penalties — including six holding calls and five false starts — and allowed eight sacks, per Pro Football Focus.

“I think the biggest thing for him was getting him to conform to the culture and the room and the standards that the players in the room had set for themselves over a long period of time,” Scarnecchia said on WEEI. “Once he realized that it was either fall in line or fall on his sword — it was going to be either one of the two — I think he found the alternative of falling in line with everyone else. I think that the guys in the room had a lot to do with it, too, from a standpoint of when he wasn’t all in.

“And you could tell. There were days where he would come out to practice and (you’d) say, ‘Aw, man, he’s not all in today.’ You’ve got two choices as a coach: you let him know about it, and you say, ‘You ain’t practicing this way today. I can tell you right now.’ And then the players take over and say, ‘Hey, look, this is how it is. This is what you’ve got to do.’ And I think once he realized that — and there were times where, honestly, periodically you had to remind him — but once he did, he was fine. And I think that’s what it’s all about with him.”

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Scarnecchia said the Patriots have “plenty of leaders” on their current O-line, naming center David Andrews, right guard Mike Onwenu and new position coach Adrian Klemm, who took over for Matt Patricia this offseason. Klemm played under Scarnecchia during the early years of the Bill Belichick era.

“I think the more time that they can spend with one another, Trent and Adrian, and have a meeting of the minds relative to what’s expected of him — the guy will do what you want him to do and what he’s asked to do,” Scarnecchia said. “You’ve just got to get him. You’ve got to get him on board, and that’s what’s important at this point.”

Patriots players now are off for the summer after the team concluded its offseason program Wednesday. Brown can ease these concerns if he comes back strong in training camp, which kicks off in late July.