Can Pats Replicate 2018’s Ground Success?

Just as I was feeling pretty great about the team-building of the 2019 offseason, Jared Veldheer threw us all a curve ball and abruptly retired just a couple weeks after signing.

I was penciling in Veldheer to start the season at left tackle, so this thrusts Isaiah Wynn back into the spotlight. Dante Scarnecchia was recently complimentary of Wynn, but coming off a torn Achilles and stepping right into a starting left tackle spot is a monumental leap no matter how great his potential.

What this ultimately feeds into though is my biggest storyline of this season: the ground game. Can they reproduce the success they had in critical games without Brown, Gronk and Allen?

They put up over 150 yards on the ground in every playoff game and now they’ve lost three big parts of that success. While Wynn seems athletic and promising, he’s not the monstrous Trent Brown. And the tight end group is almost completely unproven behind Ben Watson, who shouldn’t be doing heavy blocking responsibility anyway.

So the big question is can Wynn, and Watson with Matt Lacosse or Austin Seferian-Jenkins reproduce what the 2018 Pats did?

I love the draft pick of Damien Harris, his hard-charging style is exactly the direction they need to continue heading to protect and preserve Tom Brady. Harris might see far more carries that anyone projects depending on the healthy of Sony Michel and Rex Burkhead, two issues last (regular) season.

This is my biggest area of focus because it was such a critical element for the 2018 playoff run. With turnover at wide receiver, having a productive run game has never been more important. They’re well-stocked at running back and everywhere along the line but left tackle, while the tight end spot is dripping with uncertainty.

That’s enough to be concerned about, especially considering how much 40-plus Brady benefits from a productive ground game.

Obviously, with Dante Scarnecchia running things there’s always good reason to believe they’ll figure it out. Perhaps Wynn will follow the similar path to Shaq Mason, an undersized prospect who proved height doesn’t matter when you’re uber-athletic.

But Wynn is more of a college pass blocker than run blocker like Mason and that’s why things could be interesting for a critical element to the Patriots’ success. Perhaps there’s another move at tackle to be made.