Patriots Primed To Make Long-Awaited Changes Against Chargers

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo made a pair of promising statements a few weeks back, but hasn’t exactly backed them up.

“We need a guy like Layden Robinson to show what he can do. We need a guy like Cole Strange, before the end of the season, to see what he can do,” Mayo said on Nov. 29. “You can put Caedan (Wallace) in that same bucket. We need to see what the receivers can do and what they look like going forward… I think it’d be a disservice to go to the end of the season and not see what we have.”

Mayo reiterated the same message one week later.

“You have (Javon) Baker, you have (Ja’Lynn) Polk, you have Layden Robinson, Caedan Wallace — all of those guys — we wanna push them out there to know what we have in the offseason,” he said.

Robinson has taken a starting spot along the offensive line, but Baker, Polk, Wallace and Strange have combined to play a total of 53 snaps in December. Do we think that’s enough to see what they have moving forward? No, we don’t.

New England needs more, and though that group has continued to toil away on the sideline, the club might no longer have much of a choice but to play them.

Ben Brown was not spotted at practice on Christmas Eve, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN, meaning there could be a need for a new starting center in Sunday’s matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Strange, perhaps?

Wallace also seems close to returning, with his eventual activation off injured reserve needing to come this week before he’s lost for the season. The Patriots have also been exclusively repping him at right tackle and likely will want to plug him into that spot as soon as possible, not only because they need to get Demontrey Jacobs off the field but because it might cause people to forget the debacle they endured trying to flip him to left tackle during training camp.

New England’s usage of the wide receivers might not change, but there did seem to be increased opportunities for Baker against the Buffalo Bills.

It’s time to start making some changes, whether they feel the kids are ready or not.