4 Patriots most to blame for the team's disastrous 1-4 start

2. Vederian Lowe

Trent Brown is a rock as the Patriots' starting left tackle. Unfortunately for Belichick and his offensive staff, Vederian Lowe is a turnstile at the right tackle spot. His poor play has made the team's offense look dysfunctional at times through the first five games of the 2023 season.

Lowe's PFF average of 45.2 on the season tells a succinct story of just how bad he's been. It's hard to point at anything he's done right on the young season. In particular, his poor pass blocking has left quarterback Mac Jones running for his life on multiple occasions.

Unfortunately for New England, the options behind Lowe on the depth chart aren't overly appealing. He's going to get every opportunity to improve his play over the next few weeks to maintain his spot in the starting lineup. The prospect of replacing Lowe with someone like Calvin Anderson isn't likely to yield much of an upgrade.

At the absolute minimum, the Patriots need Lowe to improve his run blocking to the point where opponents can't overload the left side of the line due to his inadequacies. Lowe isn't the long-term answer for this team at right tackle but they need him to stop playing like one of the worst starters in the league. As long as that continues it's not going to matter what else New England tries to scheme on offense.