New England Patriots 2021 offensive playbook: Who stays, who goes
The New England Patriots offensive line was its strongest group.
The New England Patriots offensive line has to be considered a big disappointment in 2020. Pass protection was poor most of the season and run blocking was sketchy.
The $14M guard, Joe Thuney is not just one of the team’s best offensive linemen, he’s one of the best players on the team. He also proved his worth to the team with his versatility. But after Isaiah Wynn went down with an injury, Thuney should have been given the nod at left tackle. He can play any position on the offensive line and it would have been better for the team if he had taken up that position.
Arguments that you’d weaken another position or two positions in doing that don’t hold water with Thuney. He can excel anywhere on the line and the second most important player on the team is the left tackle, as Newton can well attest. The Patriots inability to replace Wynn cost them dearly.
This one is totally on the coaches.
Wynn himself is an anomaly. He’s the size of a smaller guard or center but is slotted in at left tackle. When he’s healthy he’s a tremendously talented player. The issue is availability. In his three seasons with New England after being a first-round draft pick, he has only played eight, 10, and 10 games due to injury.
Being injured for Wynn is no longer an aberration, it’s a pattern. He’s injured every year. Whether this is related to his size (not likely) or he just always gets hurt, he has to be considered injury prone at this point. When that characterizes your offensive left tackle, you have a problem, a big problem.
His likely back-up might have been Yodney Cajuste, but he has yet to play in even one game in two years after having been a third-round pick for New England. One of New England’s top two picks in 2021 has to be an offensive left tackle. Right after a young quarterback.
At guard, the Patriots have the terrific Thuney but at $14M salary this season on the franchise tag, he may be too expensive for a rebuilding team. If the Patriots can’t sign him to a deal at more reasonable money a trade may be best for both sides.
Thuney will get his long-term deal and New England will hopefully get a top player or high draft capital. At this point, however, a player is the best option since this team has shown time and again that it is a clueless drafting team. In addition, the right side is manned by the dependable and talented Shaq Mason.
If both stay, guard is the best position on the team. In addition, David Andrews is a talented center and if he’s fully healthy next season he will be solid as usual.
The right tackle spot is manned by the team’s best rookie draft pick in year’s, Michael Onwenu, a sixth-round pick from Michigan. A previous article explained that picking Onwenu was a solid move. He filled in early on at guard, and then after another replacement flopped as a fill-in for Marcus Cannon who had opted-out, he stepped into the offensive right tackle spot and made it his own.
He has started all 15 of New England’s games. He’s been touted not only as New England’s best rookie but one of the best rookie performers in the NFL. This was a great but obviously lucky pick for New England on another Michigan sixth-rounder. Unfortunately, their other picks did not work out nearly so well.
The backups on the offensive line were two linemen the team traded for in 2019, Jermaine Eluemunor and Korey Cunningham. Neither has panned out even as backups. Enough said.
Another draftee, fifth-round pick Justin Herron has overachieved to an extent, playing in 11 games, starting five, and acquitting himself fairly well. Long-term he’s likely a backup, however. The offensive line is a unit that needs a major infusion of youth and talent in 2021.
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In addition, the team has to decide where they go with Wynn. His chronic injury situation is a very real and significant problem. The decision on Wynn will not be an easy one.
Yet, one thing is certain, adding another starting-caliber offensive left tackle is a necessity either in free agency or in the draft.
Wynn stays (probably). Mason, Andrews, and Onwenu stay. Herron stays. Thuney may go. Eluemunor and Cunningham go. Cajuste goes.
Next up, who stays or goes on defense. These suggestions may surprise.