How concerned should the Patriots be about the offensive line? Phil Perry weighs in on Sports Sunday after another brutal preseason performance
We have good news and bad news from Sunday's preseason finale.
The good news is that New England Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye looked the part against the Washington Commanders, leading an 11-play, 88-yard touchdown drive on his very first possession and making several plays that suggested he's ready to play QB at the NFL level.
The bad news is that New England's offensive line didn't look the part -- and that's putting it lightly.
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An early miscommunication up front led to starting QB Jacoby Brissett absorbing a massive hit and injuring his right shoulder. Later in the game, Maye lost his shoe when right guard Sidy Sow was driven back into his foot. The Patriots' starting o-line committed six penalties through the first quarter-and-a-half of play, and five different linemen committed at least one penalty -- all against Washington's backup defensive line.
Maye has outplayed Brissett this preseason, and in an ideal world, he'd get the starting QB job as a result. But as Tom E. Curran explained on a new Patriots Talk Podcast following Sunday night's preseason finale, the awful play of the offensive line changes the calculus.
🔊 Patriots Talk: "Embarrassingly inadequate" O-line play once again holding Pats hostage | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
"I'm going to distill the quarterback conversation for Week 1 down to this: You can't make a mistake that will somehow sully Drake Maye's rookie year if you sit him for September or even sit him for half of September. You can't screw him up while he watches. You can screw him up while he plays," Curran said.
Curran believes the risk of Maye being tarnished behind a terrible offensive line -- especially in light of Mac Jones' devolution in New England -- is great enough for the Patriots to start Brissett over the rookie in Week 1.
"The disgraceful performance of the offensive line, which is the second disgraceful performance we've seen turned in against an NFC East opponent when we include the Philadelphia Eagles joint practice -- I mean, (it was) embarrassingly inadequate," Curran said.
"They bumped into each other on a Jacoby Brissett dropback, which caused a sack, which caused a shoulder injury of undetermined severity. They stepped on Drake Maye's foot; he lost his shoe. They had myriad illegal formations, myriad holds and a couple false starts thrown in there. ... It's an adventure, and even if David Andrews is in there, I think it will stabilize things, but it's not going to fix things."
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The Patriots could have avoided this problem by investing more heavily in the o-line either in the NFL Draft or in free agency, where they still have more than $50 million in cap space. But their decision to select Maye at No. 3 overall meant they prioritized the future franchise QB over shoring up the trenches in the short term.
"They put their chips on Maye, which was a tacit acknowledgement that, 'We're going to suck on the offensive line again,'" Curran said. "So I don't care what they say. There was no tackle in free agency that they brought in, they got worse at the position with castoffs that they used last year -- they're worse than they were last year right now.
"I hold (de facto general manager) Eliot Wolf primarily responsible, then (offensive line coach) Scott Peters and the players themselves, then up to (offensive coordinator) Alex Van Pelt. That's a disaster on the offensive line, and it's holding the team hostage."
Also in this episode:
- Breaking down the positive: Drake Maye continues to impress
- Can anything be done to fix the offensive line in the short-term?
- Is Jerod Mayo going to be able to ignore the preference of his locker room to start the rookie at QB?
