Wild stat highlights Patriots’ roster turnover at crucial position

Wild stat highlights Patriots’ roster turnover at crucial position originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Some bad teams rifle through starting quarterbacks in their quest to achieve NFL relevance. But the New England Patriots’ most unstable position might be in front of their QB.

Two Patriots offensive tackles are dealing with injuries this week, as Vederian Lowe (knee) has yet to practice this week and rookie Caedan Wallace (knee) has been a limited participant. If neither can suit up, New England will have to turn to recent signing Demontrey Jacobs — who went undrafted in 2023 and has yet to play an NFL snap — as its starting left tackle against All-Pro defensive end Nick Bosa and the San Francisco 49ers.

That may sound like a disaster scenario, but it would be nothing new for this Patriots team, which has started three different left tackles through three games in 2024 — Chukwuma Okorafor in Week 1, Lowe in Week 2 and Wallace in Week 3.

If Jacobs makes it 4-for-4 on Sunday, he’ll be the 13th different offensive tackle (left or right) to start a game for New England since the start of the 2022 season. Here are the previous 12, per the Boston Herald’s Zack Cox:

Caedan Wallace

Vederian Lowe

Chukwuma Okorafor

Mike Onwenu

Trent Brown

Calvin Anderson

Conor McDermott

Yodny Cajuste

Marcus Cannon

Isaiah Wynn

Justin Herron

Yasir Durant

That’s an average of a new starting offensive tackle every three games over the past two-plus seasons. And it speaks in part to why the Patriots have had one of the NFL’s worst offenses in that span (26th in yards per game in 2022, 30th in 2023 and dead-last entering Week 4 in 2024).

As the list above illustrates, New England has whiffed on OTs in both the NFL Draft and free agency. Herron, Wynn, Cannon, Cajuste, Onwenu and Wallace all were drafted in 2018 or later, and only Onwenu and Wallace remain with the team. Of the team’s six free-agent signings at tackle since 2022 — Durant, McDermott, Anderson, Brown, Okorafor and Lowe — only Lowe is…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wild-stat-highlights-patriots-roster-153516781.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2024-09-27 15:40:00

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