replacing the unreplaceable
Loss of Hightower, Chung, Cannon leave giant holes
It was a rare bad day to be a Patriot.
Several notable Pats exercised their option to sit out the upcoming NFL season due to concerns about playing in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Linebacker Dont’a Hightower, safety Patrick Chung and running back Brandon Bolden all opted out, following three teammates who made the same decision Monday. Among those players, starting right tackle Marcus Cannon was the headliner.
Losing Hightower and Cannon stings worst, given they’re strong, dependable starters at positions backed by little depth. Filling their shoes will require more than a simple “next man up” mentality. Now reduced to league-average roster talent, the Patriots must get creative to repatch their depth chart.
Replacing Cannon is a simple starting point. The Pats need another body to compete with 2019 thirdrounder Yodny Cajuste and backup Korey Cunningham in training camp for his old spot. Cajuste is a complete unknown, and all of Cunningham’s six NFL starts have come at left tackle.
Signing a street free agent is cost-effective and far more likely than a trade, given the circumstances. Bring one or two linemen into camp, may the best tackle win and hope he sticks as the starter.
Among the available offensive tackles, former Patriot LaAdrian Waddle could fit. However, the team let him sign with Buffalo in free agency just a year ago for a paltry $2 million, indicating their interest then was low and should be lower now.
Another former Bill could draw interest. Two years after getting dealt to the
Bengals, Cordy Glenn was cut last March because of a difficult 2019 campaign plagued by a lingering concussion and clashes with coaches. His best days may be behind him, but Glenn, 30, has been above-average in pass protection almost his entire career.
The problem with signing him — aside from whatever the NFL sees that’s kept Glenn on the street — is he’s a career left tackle. The Pats have no time for such a transition.
That’s where Demar Dotson steps in.
A career right tackle, Dotson started 106 games for Tampa Bay in the last decade, when he developed into one of the NFL’s better pass blockers at his position. Even at age 34, Dotson allowed a sack on just 0.7% of the Bucs’ passing snaps last year, according to Pro Football Focus. Aside from a down 2018 season, his run blocking has always been passable.
Penalties have been troublesome for Dotson — he took 10 last season alone — but at worst, the 6-foot-9 behemoth could serve as a fringe backup. Or perhaps even the Pats’ newest swing tackle, having started a handful of games on the left side.
Bottom line: Dotson is as close to a perfect tackle stopgap as the Pats should find.
On defense, finding a single replacement for Hightower is an impossible ask. For years, he successfully bounced between inside linebacker and edge rusher within one of the NFL’s best units. Now on the precipice of training camp, the Patriots have no choice but to divide those duties and spread them to multiple players.
Ja’Whaun Bentley is the clear choice at linebacker. Ever since he arrived in Foxboro, Bentley’s been regarded as one of the smartest Patriots draft picks. Bentley proved it in 2018 by starting two games and calling signals before he landed on injured reserve.
So who lines up next to him? As of now, the choices behind Bentley are two undrafted players and a sixth-round rookie. Far from ideal. But there is a solution: dip further into safety depth.
Over the past three seasons, the Pats have frequently dropped a safety — usually Chung — into the box to inject speed into the middle of the field and better cover tight ends and running backs. This explains how Bentley saw just 27% of the team’s defensive snaps last year despite playing in all 16 games. Chung, while battling several injuries, played 65 more snaps in the box than he did.
If Bentley can handle Hightower’s annual 500-plus snaps in the box, his efforts will shrink the Patriots’ new linebacker problem considerably. Having two strong safeties and a backup LB rotate next to him should all but erase it. The top safety options are Adrian Phillips, Kyle Dugger and Terrence Brooks, while the best freeagent options inside are linebacker Wesley Woodyard and safety Jahleel Addae, who hail from systems similar to the Patriots’.
However, Bentley cannot play off the edge. There, the Pats could try to generate the pressure Hightower provided by running an even higher frequency of blitzes than they did last season or rely on their youngsters; namely, rookie draft picks Josh Uche and Anfernee Jennings.
Uche could also push for inside linebacker snaps, as a Swiss Army knife out of Michigan who played six different positions in college. But if Uche doesn’t take to playing inside, the Pats are back to where they are now with lost practice time behind them; longing for their old defensive captain.
Truthfully, the same goes for Chung. His decision to opt out leaves ripple effects almost as extensive as Hightower’s and certainly more definitive. Either Phillips or Dugger will now start next to Devin McCourty. The other figures to become the team’s new third safety, replacing Duron Harmon. And that’s no small role. Over the past three seasons, Harmon played at least 60% of the Patriots’ defensive snaps from a reserve position. Should McCourty, Phillips or Dugger land on IR this season, a position of great strength will suddenly be reduced to an average to below-average group. The remaining safeties are Terrence Brooks, Cody Davis and Brandon King, all players known foremost for their work on special teams.
Such vulnerability is the deepest trouble Chung’s absence has caused, both in the secondary and the box. Without veterans like him, Hightower and Cannon, the Pats are suddenly clinging to smaller hopes with lesser players, fighting uncertainty around every corner on and off the field. Winning will be a patchwork effort in a patchwork season.
Trying times, indeed.