• Baptism by fire: With the 68th pick in the draft, the Patriots addressed the tackle position by selecting Penn State’s Caedan Wallace. Wallace is a mountain of a man at 6-foot-5 and 341 pounds. He played pretty well this past season in Happy Valley, too, posting a 70.4 PFF grade and a 72.8 pass-block grade.
• There are still options available on the market: Donovan Smith, Charles Leno Jr, David Bakhtiari and D.J. Humphries are all still available as free agents. Each player is over the age of 30, but the Patriots may not need them to hold down the blind side for longer than just this season.
• Check out PFF's fantasy football rankings: PFF’s fantasy football rankings include ranks from our experts, projections and our strength of schedule metric.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
By the end of the 2023 NFL season, the New England Patriots front office was left with a roster with plenty of holes. And for a team that had just finished 4-13, their worst finish since 1992, when they went 2-14, this was hardly a surprise.
The Patriots fielded one of the worst offenses in football last season, ranking second-to-last in expected points added (EPA) per play at -0.223 (only the Jets were worse). These failures were a major reason the team parted ways with longtime head coach Bill Belichick after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl championships.
Most of the Patriots’ moves through free agency centered around bringing back key contributors. The team re-signed OT Michael Onwenu, S Kyle Dugger, ED Josh Uche and ED Anfernee Jennings. They also brought in some talent from outside the organization, adding RB Antonio Gibson, WR K.J. Osborn and QB Jacoby Brissett.
Fixing this underwhelming offense was a clear priority for the Patriots in the 2024 NFL Draft. Seven of New England’s eight draft picks were used on offense, including quarterback Drake Maye and receivers Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker.
New England Patriots draft selections
- 1 (3): QB Drake Maye, North Carolina
- 2 (37): WR Ja’Lynn Polk, Washington
- 3 (68): OT Caedan Wallace, Penn State
- 4 (103): G Layden Robinson, Texas A&M
- 4 (110): WR Javon Baker, UCF
- 6 (180): CB Marcellas Dial, South Carolina
- 6 (193): QB Joe Milton III, Tennessee
- 7 (231): TE Jaheim Bell, Florida State
Draft grade: B+
However, one position that was not pursued this offseason was left tackle.
Trent Brown manned the left side of New England’s offensive in both 2022 and 2023 and played very well, his best work coming this past season when his 72.8 pass-blocking grade and 80.7 run-blocking grade culminated in an 81.2 overall grade.
But Brown ultimately signed a one-year, $4.8 million deal with the Bengals in March, leaving a 6-foot-8, 370-pound hole on New England's blindside.
The only free agency move the Patriots made to address the tackle position was the addition of Chukwuma Okorafor, who had spent the last six years in Pittsburgh. Okorafor was a third-round pick by the Steelers out of Western Michigan in 2018 but didn’t see the field much until 2020. From 2020-22, he played at least 1,100 snaps in each season, nearly all of which came at right tackle.
His role diminished heavily in 2023, as he played only 429 snaps, almost all of which came before Week 9 against the Titans — when he lost his starting job to first-round pick Broderick Jones.
Okorafor has never earned a PFF grade above 65.0 in his six-year career.
The other tackles on New England’s roster are Calvin Anderson and Vederian Lowe. Anderson appeared in just the first two games of the 2023 season and struggled mightily across 154 snaps, putting up a 44.5 PFF and allowing 10 pressures on just 110 pass-blocking snaps. Lowe was no better, as he earned a 42.7 PFF grade, allowing 41 pressures on 290 pass-blocking snaps.
With the 68th pick in the draft, the Patriots addressed the tackle position by selecting Penn State’s Caedan Wallace. Wallace was the less-heralded Nittany Lion tackle, as teammate Olumuyiwa Fashanu ended up going to the Jets at No. 11 overall.
Wallace is a mountain of a man at 6-foot-5 and 341 pounds. He played pretty well this past season in Happy Valley, too, posting a 70.4 PFF grade and a 72.8 pass-block grade. However, he was considered a massive reach for the Patriots, as he came in at No. 142 on the PFF big board.
One thing Okorafor, Anderson, Lowe and Wallace all have in common is that they all primarily play right tackle. Between the four of them, the only one who played any left tackle last season was Lowe, who played just under half of his snaps protecting the blind side.
As the roster currently stands, one of these guys will need to make the switch. For some tackles, moving from right tackle to left and vice versa isn’t a big deal. Penei Sewell was a left tackle in college and has blossomed into arguably the best right tackle in the sport today. For others, it’s like a righty being asked to write with their left hand.
The Patriots could still add a left tackle through free agency, as there are a few candidates still out there. Donovan Smith, Charles Leno Jr, David Bakhtiari and D.J. Humphries are all left tackles who are still available as free agents. Each player is over the age of 30, but the Patriots may not need them to hold down the blind side for longer than just this season, as the 2025 NFL Draft is expected to feature two blue-chip tackle prospects in LSU’s Will Campbell and Texas’ Kelvin Banks.
Based on the Vegas Super Bowl odds, New England is currently projected to pick second in the 2025 draft, so it appears they’ll be in a position to take at least one of them.
Whatever the Patriots decide to do, they need to ensure Drake Maye is well-protected if he is going to be handed the keys to the franchise.
© 2024 PFF - all rights reserved.