The Patriots are reportedly showing interest in an in-season tackle move
Sep 18, 2022; Arlington, Texas, USA; Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle La'el Collins (71) and the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line come up to the line of scrimmage for a snap in the first quarter of an NFL Week 2 game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Credit: Kareem Elgazzar-The Cincinnati Enquirer
Over the summer the New England Patriots’ offensive tackle position was in the spotlight as multiple players at the position either struggled during training camp, or missed practices entirely due to injury. While the duo of left tackle Trent Brown and right tackle Calvin Anderson held up relatively well in Week 1 there are still concerns in the long-term for the group, not just at the top of the depth chart but in terms of depth.
Even though the season has already started, the Patriots may be looking to make a move to shore up that spot, in the form of a veteran signing.
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According to Mark Daniels of MassLive, the Patriots “have shown interest” in recently-released Cincinnati Bengals tackle La’el Collins. Daniels did clarify with a second source that “the team’s level of interest is considered due diligence.”
Collins, 30, was signed as a UDFA out of LSU by the Dallas Cowboys in 2015. He’d go on to start 71 games over six years for the Cowboys, mainly at right tackle but also spending some time at left guard.
Prior to the 2022 season Collins was released by the Cowboys and signed with the Bengals. He made 15 starts at right tackle for Cincinnati last year, but tore his ACL and MCL late in the season (against the Patriots). Collins began this season on PUP, but was released by the Bengals on Tuesday.
At 6-foot-4, 314 pounds Collins has the build of the prototypical Patriots tackle. He was productive as a run blocker last year, but did allow 34 pressures and five sacks on 618 pass blocking snaps. His 44.2 PFF pass blocking grade was the worst of his career to this point.
As Daniels points out, the Patriots may just be doing their “due diligence” on Collins at this point, but it doesn’t take much to push due diligence to action. Beyond Anderson and Brown, the Patriots’ current tackle depth consists of rookie Sidy Sow and recent trade acquisitions Vederian Lowe and Tyrone Wheatley Jr. on the active roster, and Andrew Stueber on the practice squad.
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Socci’s Notebook: A rookie’s intention, his classmates’ contribution and a newcomer’s condition
While 64,000 others inside Gillette Stadium reached a crescendo, roaring as the all-time great who quarterbacked New England’s football team in 326 games declared himself “a Patriot for life,” a rookie halfway through his debut silently stuck to intentions.
Ninety minutes earlier, Chad Ryland had driven his career-opening kickoff beyond Gillette Stadium’s south end zone. Now, minutes away from the third quarter, he faced that same direction as one of a half dozen Pats and Eagles’ specialists getting loose again for the resumption of play.
Behind them, Tom Brady punctuated a speech spoken to express gratitude and exclaim the two defining virtues of the championship teams he was part of as a Patriot. You either cared about “each other” and “winning,” Brady, told the crowd, or you weren’t cut out for Foxborough. And if you landed elsewhere, Brady’s Pats couldn’t wait to play against you.
By turning his back to Brady, the rookie kicker wasn’t being disrespectful. He was, instead, acting out Brady’s words, readying himself for that possible instance in a tight game when teammates would rely on him — speaking of Patriot priorities — to simply do his job.
“Obviously, I have the utmost respect for what he’s done,” Ryland replied, when asked Sunday night if he at least took a peek at Brady or was taken by anything Tom said. “I was just trying to stay in tune with what I could do at halftime and have an intentional warmup.
“In a close game, where we know it’s going to finish close, you never know when you might be needed. That’s the biggest thing. With everything I did today, it’s just the intentionality of it all. That was my main goal, to be intentional with absolutely everything.”
It’s interesting that Ryland should repeatedly refer to being intentional.
In her latest book, “The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life,” The Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins writes a chapter on ‘Intention.’ It just so happens, the sports figure to whom she devotes the first dozen pages of the chapter is none other than, yep, Tom Brady.
Jenkins also cites words written by entrepreneur Richard Branson: “Intention in its very essence is a futuristic act.” Branson, who regularly blogs about business and advocacy, also wrote that a day devoid of intention “is a day wasted” and that productivity, leading to success, can’t occur “without intention.”
With intention, Branson founded a record company and expanded his interests to include a luxury airline. Ryland’s main intention is to get kicks off the ground with a repeatable leg motion that projects footballs on consistent flight paths.
He practiced intentionality last weekend first while undistracted by a pregame downpour. His ‘futuristic acts’ in the first half were three kickoff touchbacks and two extra-points.
Although there was no make-it, win-it opportunity in the opener’s final two quarters, halftime intentionality could set him up for his shot this week. Or the next week.
Watching Ryland in warmups, he followed every strike by walking in a small circle, looping away and back toward his spot. It was a way of resetting, as if he just stepped off the sideline and onto the field in-game.
“That’s just me trying to stick to my routine, how I would be in a game and not just rattle balls off,” Ryland says. “It’s just helping me to stay in a rhythm, part of my preparation for the game.
“It’s all the same to me, whether it’s a 50-yarder, a 20-yarder or a 33-yarder (PAT). I’m taking my same swing every time and I want to be consistent. The same swing every time. That’s consistency at its finest.”
Overall, Patriots special teams coordinator Cam Achord was pleased with how Ryland and rookie punter and holder Bryce Baringer prepared themselves for their first regular-season experiences. Especially considering the rainy conditions.
“I thought they did a real good job handling everything that was thrown at ‘em,” Achord said Tuesday in a video conference. “Being ready. Being alert on the sidelines. They’re starting to evolve and realizing what it’s like to be a professional.
“Every game you’re out there, I kind of tell everybody, you’re not a rookie once the first game’s over. You’ve just got to keep moving on. But there’s a long way to go, for sure.”
Alex Barth is a digital content producer and on-air host for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Barth grew up in the Boston area and began covering both the New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, and Boston Red Sox in 2017 before joining the Hub in 2020. He now covers all things Boston Sports for 985TheSportsHub.com as well as appearing on air. Alex writes about all New England sports, as well as college football. You can follow him across all social media platforms at @RealAlexBarth.