NFL Rumors: Orlando Brown Jr not franchised, Patriots must go all in

The New England Patriots should never look a gift horse in the face as the old saying goes. The gift is from the Kansas City Chiefs which will not franchise top offensive left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.

The Patriots have a huge opportunity staring them in the face and they need to go all-in on it as soon as free agency opens next week on March 15. Brown is a top free-agency option this offseason.

No free agent fits any team better than Brown would fit the New England Patriots. He’s tailor-made to fill their most glaring need, offensive tackle. They need to act early on free agent Brown (midnight, March 15) and just sign him.

Let’s take a look at why this makes perfect sense for the Patriots.

New England Patriots will strike gold by signing Orlando Brown Jr.

The New England Patriots needed to draft or sign a top offensive tackle last off-season. They punted. The result was a mediocre season and missing the playoffs by one game.

A whole host of factors entered into this poor showing after making the playoffs in 2021. Poor quality and depth at offensive tackle were big reasons. Absent Trent Brown who had an up-and-down season, the position was a quagmire.

Isaiah Wynn moved from left tackle to right fared no better.  He was awful. His replacements weren’t much better as Yodny Cajuste, and Marcus Cannon a late signing also were subpar.

Only when Conor McDermott came on board late did the position stabilize. McDermott played well and signed a two-year contract extension as a solid backup option for the team in 2023 and 2024.

The team still needs more at the position as Trent Brown is in the last year of his contract. Orlando Brown would instantly be the team’s top tackle and start on the left side, allowing Bill Belichick to move Trent Brown back to the right.

New England Patriots can benefit greatly by signing Orlando Brown Jr.

That strengthens both spots. In addition, the Patriots will then have the opportunity to wait a bit before drafting another top tackle in the draft. Instead of taking the best tackle available of the top four with the 14th pick, the team can then afford to wait.

They can trade down, accumulate more picks, and maybe snag a top talent like defensive end and edge Lukas Van Ness from Iowa. Then they can move up if necessary for another gigantic right tackle prospect like Dawand Jones.

It’s a strategy, a real strategy for a change that makes sense for a poor drafting Patriots team. Sign Orlando Brown and the team improves considerably at one of its most deficient positions.

Mac Jones with his limited mobility (called here “escapability”) is the likely starting quarterback. Therefore, a top offensive line is an absolute necessity.

Few additions can do what Brown can for the entire team at just the cost of his salary. To make things even better, the 6’8″ tall and 340-pound giant is only 26 years years old. Perfect.

Pay the man, and move on to remedy other positions in the draft. If the team needs to cut ties with some existing players to make up the cap hit, then just go for it. It didn’t work last season and absent significant upgrades it won’t again this season.

The New England Patriots are a poor drafting team and their last big dive into free agency delivered the terrific Matt Judon but also super-flops Jonnu Smith and Nelson Agholor. Orlando Brown Jr. is about as close to a sure thing as you can get.

And by the way, Kansas City signed guard Joe Thuney away from New England Patriots two years ago. It worked out well for the Champion Chiefs. Time for the Patriots to return the favor.

Let’s see if for once they do the right thing. But don’t be too optimistic, when it comes to personnel management, this team can’t seem to get out of its own way.

Let’s hope for the best. We’ll see.