It's Time to Acknowledge the Patriots Pulled a Miracle Rebuilding Their Offensive Line in One Offseason
Jared Wilson is, of course, correct. NFL teams simply do not line two rookies up next to each other on the left side of the offensive line. Not under any circumstances. And certainly not when the fate of the entire franchise is turning his back to that side with the ball in his hands 20 to 40 times a game. But the 2025 Patriots did exactly that.
Here's another thing you rarely if ever see NFL offensive lines do;
But again, this team is doing it. And it's way past time we recognize that what Mike Vrabel, Elliot Wolf, and O-line coaches Doug Marrone, Jason Houghtaling and Robert Kugler have done has been more than remarkable. In the words of Jules Winnfield, "We just witnessed a miracle, and I want you to fucking acknowledge it!"
This is what I posted on January 12, 2024. Just a day or two after Jerod Mayo was installed as head coach and Wolf became the de facto General Manager:
No More Shopping in the Discount Store for Offensive Linemen
Offensive line was a glaring need on this team for the past two years. This past year, the most glaring need was tackle. Highly regarded tackles were available in the draft. Most notably Broderick Jones, who was sitting waiting to be taken when it came to New England's pick at 14. Instead Belichick traded down, went defense with his first three picks, and ignored the position altogether. Then opted for Dollar General off-brand tackles for the franchise on a budget. Reilly Reiff. Conor McDermott. Vederian Lowe. Does anyone else remember the Calvin Anderson era? You don't have to get a tackle with the No. 3 pick. And goodness knows this team has a tradition of finding very good interior linemen in the sweet spot around the 4th round. But it can't be neglected another season. At the very least, we need next Matt Light or Sebastian Vollmer Round 2 home run. To do anything less would be dereliction of duty.
And what we got was a Week 1 starting lineup of:
(L to R): Chuks Okorafor, Michael Jordan, David Andrews, Layden Robinson, Michael Onwenu
Andrews left with an injury early in Week 4 and never played another NFL snap. Onwenu was playing out of position out of necessity. Okorafor was benched after 12 snaps and never returned.
On the season, they'd end up employing:
Tackles: 6
Guards: 7
Centers: 4
Allowing for the guys playing more than one position like Onwenu did, no less than 16 different O-linemen took snaps over the course of the year. Not surprisingly, this is where the team as a whole ranked in Pro Football Focus grades:
Run blocking: 32nd, 45.6
Pass blocking: 31st, 52.2
After 11 games, the 2025 Pats have had a total of eight guys take snaps on the line. And even that low number is deceptive because it includes depth guys who have come in late in blowout wins to give the starters a rest and Ben Brown coming in as an eligible receiver third tackle.
The more accurate way to express it is that one starter on the O-line missed a game (Wilson, a Week 4 win over Carolina), and the other four all have between 694 and 705 snaps. As a result, those PFF grades ranks:
Run blocking: 22nd, 57.5
Pass blocking: 9th, 68.8
I'm not about to argue that makes them the Cowboys "Great Wall" of the '90s or Washington's "Hogs" of the '80s. Or even the Patriots of the '70s that had John Hannah and Leon Gray on the left side. But considering that the unit was a neglected disaster the year before, the offensive line equivalent of a toxic waste dump that's just allowed to fester until it sips into the water supply, going from the bottom of the league to where they are in one offseason is nothing short of heroic.
Consider:
Let's take them in order:
LT: Campbell. The 4th pick in the draft that an alarming number of people didn't want them to draft because they focused on how his shirts would be tailored instead of how he dominated the rest of the SEC for three years, as we speak, he's been appreciably better than the three guys taken ahead of him. Right now, Cam Ward is one of the statistically worst QBs in the league. Travis Hunter is a part time defensive player, average receiver, and injured. And Abdul Carter has 12 solo tackles and 0.5 sacks. Campbell meanwhile has filled a decade-long void at the LT spot in New England. In his rookie class he's 1st in PFF pass blocking grade, and in a statistical dead heat with the Jets Armand Membou, who's a right tackle.
LG: Wilson. Drafted to be a center, Wilson wasted precious little time stealing the guard job away from former 1st rounder Cole Strange. In his rookie class, he's tied for 5th among all O-linemen at any position in efficiency %, having allowed just 22 pressures in 403 passing reps.
C: Garrett Bradbury. He's played every single down for the Pats so far, and the third most at his position in the league. We're 11 games in, and he's yet to draw a penalty flag or get charged with a sack. And without looking it up because I'm not motivated to, I can remember one bad snap all season.
RG: Onwenu. Finally, he gets to play the position he was born to and not the one he's forced into due to malfeasance on the part of the front office. He's allowed just one sack and one QB hit and is 6th at his position in PFF pass blocking grades. Essentially he was the one wall you keep up when you rebuild a house in one of those elitist snob towns who won't let you do a tear-down to preserve the historical aesthetic or whatever. He was the one right thing about the 2024 line. And one of five right things about 2025's.
RT Morgan Moses. Remember all the concerns about his age? Which were legitimate by the way, because he's 34, was coming into his 12th season, and was approaching 10,000 career snaps, meaning there's a lot of city miles on his drive train. I mean, no one doubted the veteran presence he brought to a young group, just whether he could keep up with quick twitch outside rushers and get ahead of screen passes and toss plays. And all he's done is check all those boxes and exceed expectations. He's 15th among all tackles at efficiency %, having allowed one sack and two QB hits. And has only come off the field in those aforementioned, well-earned breathers at the ends of big wins. And he's getting results:
So again, kudos to everyone involved in cleaning up the disaster that was last season. Let's never allow that kind of neglect to a crucial unit happen ever again. And just be glad the draft fell the way it did. It turns out that picking 4th overall wasn't such a disaster after all. The franchise quarterback is happy things worked out the way they did.
… cool for us to share this similar journey and share some of my experiences with him… Will is just coming to work and coming to practice every day. He’s one of our best practice players and it shows up in the games. It’s fun kinda sharing our accents. I think his is a lot stronger than mine, so it’s fun to hear that. I think that’s the best thing about it, just like I said, sharing some similar experiences, and sharing what I learned from last year, and knowing what a long season it was compared to college. It’s also cool being young and both of us kinda living the same kinda life.” (@WEEIAfternoons)
We all should be.