NFL: Breaking down the 2015 New England Patriots
By Andrew Garda
Offensive line
Starters: Nate Solder, Tre Jackson [R], Bryan Stork, Ryan Wendell, Sebastian Vollmer
Depth: Cameron Fleming, Marcus Cannon, Josh Kline, Jordan Devey, Chris Barker, Kevin Hughes, Josh Kline, Cameron Fleming, Caylin Hauptmann, G Shaquille Mason [R], David Andrew [R]
The offensive line for the New England Patriots starts out solid on the ends and gets a little shakier as we move into the interior. Nate Solder continues to impress and grow as a player every year and has begun to show more consistency, though he can backslide in that area at times as well. Solder can play at a Pro Bowl level and showed he could be consistently solid in the playoffs, but too often last season he struggled. That could have been in part because Dan Connolly was abysmal at left guard. The hope is that Tre’ Jackson can step in and immediately shore up the left interior, leaving Solder more room to cover his own area and not have to bail out his guard.
It’s a lot to ask of a fourth round pick though, even if he looks like a perfectly good interior lineman in terms of size and he’s a good road grader, but Jackson isn’t a tremendous pass blocker and could lose the position to Jordan Devey, although Devey was terrible at guard last year as well.
At right tackle is Sebastian Vollmer, whose health is the key to this line performing. Virtually the only player on the line to whom Pro Football Focus gave a positive grade last season, Vollmer is coming off surgery to repair a torn labrum after the end of last season. The Boston Globes’ Ben Volin has reported that the team expects their right tackle to be ready to go by the start of camp. If he’s not ready, Marcus Cannon will step in. Cannon isn’t going to be mistaken for a Hall of Fame player, but he’s a solid backup and could play for a length of time if the Patriots needed him to.
Ryan Wendell is a solid guard and he should play well on the right side, though like much of this line last year he had issues in pass protection. He also brings versatility to the line and could line up on the left side or even at center if need be.
At center, Bryan Stork is going to try and build off an uneven 2014, one in which he was able to handle his pass rush and run blocking assignments well for one snap, then fall apart the next. It’s the danger you get in starting a rookie at center, but we should see progress here as well.
The depth behind the starters is hit and miss. There are players like Cannon who can step in and perform well and unproven players like fourth rounder Shaquille Mason and undrafted rookie free agent David Andrews. So injuries, if they occur, could be an issue.
Overall this is a decent offensive line which could be better if they get improved play from the guards and a little more consistency from Solder.
Next: Defensive line?