The New England Patriots entered this offseason with a clear need at left tackle with Trent Brown and Mike Onwenu both hitting free agency.
While they re-signed Onwenu, who has played right tackle and right guard in his four seasons in New England, they let Brown walk and sign with the Cincinnati Bengals.
To address the need the Patriots signed former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Chukwuma Okorafor and drafted Penn State’s Caedan Wallace in the third round. Despite neither taking real left tackle on the left side, New England expected them to compete for the job.
However, at their two mandatory minicamp sessions, Wallace was working strictly at right tackle with Onwenu kicking back in to guard.
Now, it could be argued that the Patriots are trying out different combinations and are giving Wallace left tackle reps in sessions that aren’t open to the media.
However, it’s hard to expect a tackle with no game experience at a position to compete and potentially win a job if they aren’t getting consistent reps.
If Wallace is a steady, competent, long-term right tackle in New England, it doesn’t mean the pick was wasted, but both Wallace and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf spoke about the tackle’s ability to flip sides after the draft, so it wasn’t their plan for him to stay on the right side.
With all of the cap space that the Patriots had at the beginning of the offseason and the talent with left tackle experience that was out there on the market, they should’ve had a better plan than hoping that these guys could do the job.
Now, all of their hopes may rest in Okorafor, who was performing so poorly in Pittsburgh on the right side that he was benched. That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
