FOXBORO -- The Patriots made a trade Monday, acquiring offensive lineman Ryan Groy from the Chicago Bears in exchange for Matthew Wells, a sixth-round draft choice out of Mississippi State.
Groy, a 24-year-old interior offensive lineman, signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2014. The Wisconsin graduate appeared in four games for Chicago last season, including three starts.
Wells, who measures in at 6-foot-1, 223 pounds, was not present at New England's practice on Monday. He had missed previous sessions for undisclosed reasons, but when he was available to play, he factored in mainly as a special teams contributor. The Patriots picked Wells at No. 178 overall in this year's draft.
Groy should provide the Patriots with a little bit of depth on the interior of the offensive line. With veteran Ryan Wendell still on the physically unable to perform list, that appears to be a young group with rookie fourth-round picks Tre' Jackson and Shaq Mason receiving the majority of the team's repetitions at the right and left guard spots, respectively.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick did not want to comment on Groy's acquisition before it became official, but he did discuss how he Mason and Jackson have progressed to this point in their first professional training camp.
"They have gotten a lot of work," Belichick said. "They’ve gotten a lot of snaps. They’re working hard and they’re getting better. Kind of each day and each week here, the degree of difficulty gets a little bit higher. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep taking those steps with all of our younger players -- our defensive linemen, defensive backs, our offensive linemen, all those guys -- just moving to the next level as the schemes become a little more sophisticated as we add more plays, as they add more defenses or vice versa, as we add more defenses, the offense adds more plays. Then it just starts to exponentially expand, and we’ll see how it goes."