Bill Belichick Laments Predictable Patriots Problem As Season Concludes

FOXBORO, Mass. -- The Patriots' halfhearted plan to fix their offensive tackle issues did not produce the desired results.

Five different players have started games at tackle for New England this season. Four tackles will finish the season on injured reserve, including both of the Patriots' free agent additions (Riley Reiff and Calvin Anderson) and one of their two late-summer trade pickups (Tyrone Wheatley Jr.).

Their best tackle (Trent Brown) was a healthy scratch in Week 17 amid reports about his lack of buy-in and commitment. His replacement (Vederian Lowe) is Pro Football Focus's 82nd-ranked tackle out of 84 qualifiers.

Here were the offensive tackles who spent time on the Patriots' 53-man roster:

Mike Onwenu: 10 starts (after four starts at right guard)
Trent Brown: eight starts
Vederian Lowe: seven starts
Conor McDermott: five starts
Calvin Anderson: two starts
Riley Reiff: zero starts
Tyrone Wheatley Jr.: zero starts

Speaking ahead of Sunday's season finale against the New York Jets, head coach Bill Belichick lamented the Patriots' inability to find any real continuity at that vital position.

“It’s not the way we thought it would happen when we acquired some of the guys at the beginning of the year," Belichick said. "But it is what it is.”

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That doesn't mean the original plan was a sound one, however. The Patriots entered training camp with just one rostered tackle who was a Week 1 starter in 2022: the notoriously unreliable Brown.

Reiff and Anderson both began the previous season as backups. The former was 34 years old and clearly past his prime, and the latter never had started more than seven games in any season. But they were affordable, and the Patriots opted to sign them to budget deals rather than pursuing one of the several marquee tackles available in free agency.

Anderson missed all of camp with an illness, then was benched after starting the first two games at right tackle. Reiff was moved inside to guard -- a position he'd never played in the NFL -- before the end of the summer, got hurt in the preseason finale and wound up appearing in just one game.

The Patriots also re-signed McDermott, who was solid down the stretch in 2022 but had spent most of his career on practice squads. He both started and finished the season on IR, starting five games at left tackle in the interim.

New England's lone move to address the position during the 2022 NFL Draft was using a fourth-round pick on Sidy Sow, who played the vast majority of his collegiate snaps at guard. The experiment of shifting Sow outside quickly failed, and he was back at guard by the time the season began.

Desperate, the Patriots swung a pair of August trades for reinforcements. Wheatley did not play an offensive snap before suffering what proved to be a season-ending injury, and Lowe has been one of the NFL's worst tackles when pressed into service.

Unable to find a reliable right tackle, the Patriots begrudgingly bumped Onwenu over from right guard -- his natural position and their preferred spot for him -- in mid-October. Save for one rough outing against Khalil Mack, the 26-year-old played well there, looking like a player the Patriots should try hard to re-sign this offseason.

The same cannot be said for Brown, who also is an impending free agent. After a strong first half of the season, he nosedived once November hit, missing four of the last eight games and making just one start during that span.

Brown has not played a full game since Week 8, and multiple reports indicated his work ethic waned following a couple of midseason injuries. He was not spotted during the open media portion of Wednesday's practice.

Had this group stayed healthy, maybe the results would have been different. Maybe the Patriots' offensive line wouldn't rank 27th in PFF's pass-blocking efficiency and 32nd in ESPN's pass-block win rate. Maybe Mac Jones wouldn't have been rattled all the way to the bench. Maybe his replacement, Bailey Zappe, wouldn't be facing pressure on more than 40% of his dropbacks.

This setup, though, looked doomed from the start. The Patriots tried to patch their biggest offensive hole with a couple of low-level veterans, a draft pick they seemingly misevaluated and two late fliers that flopped.

We don't know who will be starting at quarterback for New England in 2024. But he won't succeed unless the tackle situation improves.