New England Patriots: Post-NFL Draft offensive line power rankings

The New England Patriots best offensive lineman

This call is certainly open to question and disagreement. Fair enough. And there certainly is some favoritism going on here in naming Trent Brown as New England’s top offensive lineman.

He is indeed a favorite of this writer who was miffed that the Patriots allowed him to sign with the Raiders two years ago and remains ticked that they only signed him to a one-year contract this time around.

Now, this situation may have been predicated on the fact that Brown had injury issues in Las Vegas. It’s a fair observation. He only played in 16 of 32 games for the Raiders those two years though he was a Pro-Bowler in 2019 playing in 11. But with New England, he played every game and Tom Brady and the team were better for it.

This discussion will be predicated on a single important supposition and that is that Brown will play where he is most needed and valued, at offensive left tackle.

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Popular opinion (if not wisdom) has him pegged into the right tackle where the Raiders miss-used his top talent as the quarterback’s left-side protector.

Brown indeed played left tackle for the Patriots in his only year in New England and he performed admirably. His contribution to that Super Bowl-winning season was and is grossly underrated.

He played the second most important position on the team and helped lead them quietly, yet effectively to their sixth Lombardi Trophy. Neither team nor position has been the same since.

Brown is a mountain in cleats, a road grading run blocker and it was his block that helped get Sony Michel into the end zone to beat the LA Rams.

In addition, as the late great Joel Buchsbaum used to say (and, yes, I’ve used this metaphor previously) about huge offensive lineman, “He’s a $50 (used to be $20, but inflation) cab ride to get around”. That’s Brown.

This writer is a big adherent of the philosophy that a good big man is better than a good small man (in athletics). Brown is a very, very good big man and a very, very big man, period. That combination plays well at offensive left tackle in the National Football League.

That’s why the hope here is that the Patriots do the right thing whether they pick up Isaiah Wynn’s option year or not, and start Brown at offensive left tackle.

It will make Cam Newton’s job that much easier and maybe, just maybe give Wynn an opportunity to stay on the field by playing a less demanding position with help.

So that’s it, the post-draft and other offseason evaluation of the Patriots’ offensive line depth. They should have, could have done more to bolster this unit but didn’t. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to bite them and there’s still time to add quality in other ways.

Regardless, this line is key to the team’s future success. Hopefully, it will stay healthy, do its job well, and help ensure that success, as in playoff qualification and more.

After all, this is the New England Patriots we’re talking about.

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