The Patriots’ weakest position during their disappointing and dysfunctional 2022 season is … still their weakest position.
Poor play at the right tackle spot continues to be a major issue for New England five weeks into the 2023 campaign. It’s started two players there (Calvin Anderson in Weeks 1 and 2; Vederian Lowe in Weeks 3 through 5), and neither has been effective.
Want proof? ESPN’s Seth Walder tracks pass-block win rates around the league. On Wednesday, he published a chart showing where each tackle ranks in that metric compared to how often he’s involved in double-team blocks.
Anderson and Lowe have the second- and third-worst pass-block win rates of any qualified tackle, per ESPN’s charting. Only Jacksonville Jaguars rookie Anton Harrison ranks lower.
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Patriots starter Trent Brown has been substantially better on the left side, though still below average in this particular metric. It’s also notable that Brown ranks among the lowest in double-team rate, meaning the Patriots often are having him block opposing edge rushers 1-on-1 without help.
Pro Football Focus has a similar view of New England’s right tackle conundrum.
Among 72 qualified tackles, Lowe and Anderson rank 67th and 68th, respectively, on PFF’s grading scale. Lowe’s 25 pressures allowed are second-most among tackles. The nine he surrendered against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 4 were the most by any Patriots blocker since the start of the 2017 season. Anderson, who missed all of training camp with a serious illness, allowed nine pressures and one sack in his two starts and was a healthy scratch for last week’s 34-0 loss to New Orleans.
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That duo’s struggles underscore a clear roster-building misstep by head coach Bill Belichick, who eschewed big-ticket free agents and early-round draft picks at the tackle position in favor of bargain-basement finds.
The Patriots signed Anderson and Riley Reiff in free agency, used a fourth-round draft pick on Sidy Sow (a college guard who played tackle this summer but already moved back inside) and swung late-August trades for Lowe and Tyrone Wheatley Jr., who had a combined 33 snaps of NFL experience between them.
New England entered the season with exactly one tackle on its roster (Brown) who was a Week 1 NFL starter in 2022.
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Guard play has been a problem, as well, with Mike Onwenu and Cole Strange battling injuries and inconsistency and rookie Atonio Mafi enduring some significant growing pains. The revolving door at right tackle is the biggest issue for not just the Patriots’ O-line, but the team as a whole. And whoever starts there this Sunday gets to face Las Vegas Raiders Pro Bowl pass rusher Maxx Crosby, who just dominated the Green Bay Packers on “Monday Night Football” to earn AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Keeping Crosby at bay will be a major challenge for a New England O-line that’s been one of the NFL’s worst through five weeks. A composite ranking by Ben Baldwin combining stats from PFF, ESPN and Sports Info Solutions has the Patriots at No. 31 out of 32 teams, ahead of only the New York Giants.
Offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien on Tuesday said the Patriots are introducing some schematic changes aimed at helping that struggling unit, which already has rolled out four different starting configurations this season.
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“I think at the end of the day, it comes down to communication and the technical aspect of it,” O’Brien said. “Anticipation sometimes, awareness. There’s things that we can do better to help them from a scheme standpoint.
“But we just had a good meeting. We went over a lot of things, fundamentals, that we can do better, some schematic things that we can really improve on to help them. Hopefully, that’ll start to show this week. It needs to start to show this week.”
Featured image via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
