Guess we won’t be running this play this week. 🙁

As you’ve probably heard by now Nate Solder has reportedly been lost for the season with a biceps tear. It’s a significant blow as Solder is one of the best left tackles in the game despite what many complaining Pats fans say. 

Luckily the Pats have good tackle depth and experience with Sebastian Vollmer, Marcus Cannon and likely practice squad call-up Cameron Fleming. Cannon got a bad rap after his failed move to guard last season, but he’s been a solid rotational guy who can play both sides of the line and the Pats even rewarded him with a new contract last year that surprised a lot of us. 

There is some question if Vollmer might flip to left tackle, a spot he played as a rookie and in college but I think they’ll try to mitigate the number of changes and just insert Cannon there, at least to start.

The NFL season is a campaign of attrition as much as anything else. This is the 2015 Patriots first taste of injury adversity and it likely won’t be the last taste of it. But they’ve overcome plenty of significant injuries before and have built in the necessary depth to navigate this loss. They will miss Solder’s ability in space, but with Tom Brady unloading the ball so quickly these days the edge rushers can be mitigated.