The Patriots O-Line Situation Has Done the Impossible: It's Actually Gotten Worse

"Neglect" is such a terrible word. In fact, it's one that has absolutely positive connotation. I guess if some bloodthirsty dictator were to say, "I meant to invade our neighboring country and commit genocide against an ethnic minority; I just neglected to," you could take that as a sort of benign neglect. But no one ever uses it that way. It's always in the context of describing a state of disregarding something and letting it fall apart. 

And if the Patriots offensive line situation had been any more neglected this offseason, you could line up the five starters and play a Sarah McLachlan song over them. Eliot Wolf and his staff have a lot to answer for.

They're a decidedly run-first team, with the 8th fewest pass attempts in the league. Yet they've surrendered surrendered the 8th most sacks, for a 3rd-worst sack rate of 12.5%. And despite being blitzed just 12 times, which is 7th fewest in the league, they have the 5th highest pressure rate, at 30.2%. 

Thursday night was the worst of the three games. Jacoby Brissett dropped back 23 times, was pressured 12 of those, and sacked 5 of them. For Drake Maye, it was 12 dropbacks, 5 pressures and 2 sacks. So statistically speaking, regardless of who was under center, they ended up under a Jets pass rusher. 

I bring this all up not to offer you hope, but a warning. Gird your loins. Because a bad situation is very likely to get worse. 

The analytics people at Pro Football Focus (paywall) have watched the tape, crunched the numbers, and ranked all NFL offensive lines. And you won't like what they have to say:

32. New England Patriots (No change)

Projected Week 4 starters:

LT Demontrey Jacobs

LG Zach Thomas

C David Andrews

RG Layden Robinson

RT Mike Onwenu

The New England offensive line allowed six sacks in a loss to the Jets [Author's note, it was seven], which is the most by any offensive line in a game this season. The unit ranks last in PFF pass-blocking efficiency and has surrendered 41 pressures on 96 dropbacks.

New England started rookie Caedan Wallace in place of the injured Vederian Lowe at left tackle, but it was Demontrey Jacobs who played the game's last 14 snaps at the position.

Best player: Mike Onwenu

Onwenu earned an 82.3 PFF run-blocking grade in the loss to the Jets, which ranked fifth among right tackles in Week 3. 

By way of explanation, those names in italics above are the ones PFF designates as "weak links." So that would be 60% of our starters. 

How bad is it? So bad that Vederian Lowe is our best option at LT. In case you've forgotten, Lowe is the one guy no Pats fan wanted to see back in Foxboro after he split his roughly 530 snaps at LT and RT last year, and managed to give up 38 pressures, 6 sacks and 2 penalties. Now he's practically indispensible. Because Caedan Wallace is a rookie, was a career RT at Penn St. and was forced to play out of position. 

And if you're wondering how Demontrey Jacobs managed to slip into the lineup without your noticing, welcome to the club. Jacobs went undrafted in 2023 out of USF. He was signed by Denver, and never played a snap for them. Now he's our projected LT against a defense that was No. 3 last year. And which has a front that includes Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and Sam Okuayinonu, just to name a few. 

That's the situation as it stands. Because a team that went into free agency and the draft with painfully obvious needs at quarterback and O-line, addressed the first while largely ignoring the second. Just did next to nothing and hoped it would work out for the best. 

Or to put it differently, neglected it. 

Let's just all bear this in mind Sunday as we're all seeing how good Jayden Daniels looks and how well CJ Stroud played in his rookie year and getting antsy to see Drake Maye get his shot. Until this stops being the No. 32-graded line in football, we're going to have to slow walk his first start. I want to see Maye more than anybody. I just prefer to see him in once piece.