One of Mike Vrabel’s first big goals as head coach of the New England Patriots was rebuilding the team from the trenches out. As a consequence, the team decided to invest some serious resources along the offensive line in 2025 — including three draft picks.
Will Campbell and Jared Wilson, who both earned starting spots as rookies, dominated the headlines among them. However, the third lineman selected also played a valuable role on the team, at least early on during his rookie campaign.
Hard facts
Name: Marcus
Bryant
Position: Offensive tackle
Jersey number: 52
Opening day age: 24 (6/22/2002)
Measurements: 6’7 1/8”, 320 lbs, 8 7/8” hand size, 34 5/8” arm length, 83 1/8” wingspan, 4.97s 40-yard dash, 8.08s 3-cone drill, 5.03s short shuttle, 31 1/2” vertical jump, 9’3” broad jump, 26 bench press reps, 8.99 Relative Athletic Score
Experience
NFL: New England Patriots (2025-) | College: SMU (2020-23), Missouri (2024)
A three-star offensive tackle prospect out of Cedar Ridge High School in Round Rock, TX, Bryant started his college career at SMU — one of two schools alongside Incarnate Word to offer him a scholarship. In four seasons with the Mustangs, he appeared in 42 games with 29 starts and was named first-team All-AAC in 2023.
Despite his success, Bryant opted to enter the transfer portal after his fourth season. He took his talents to Missouri, where he became an immediate starter at left tackle. Playing opposite future first-round draft pick Armand Membou, he started all 13 of the Tigers’ games in 2024 and played 975 total snaps between offense and special teams.
Bryant entered the NFL Draft in 2025, and was selected 220th overall in the seventh round by the Patriots. He appeared in 12 games as a rookie, but saw offensive action in only three of them.
Scouting report
Strengths: Standing at 6-foot-7 and 320 pounds with long arms and big hands, Bryant has prototypical size and length for an NFL offensive tackle. He complements his build with good power that works from his base up; he sets a firm anchor and has a powerful first punch to stun rushers upon initial contact. He also pairs up his power with some proper speed both out of his stance and when moving laterally; he can reset the line of scrimmage in the run game and has the reach, lower-body agility and effective kick-slide to force edges to run the loop to get to the quarterback.
Weaknesses: Bryant’s size is a plus, but he sometimes does not take full advantage of it. He has a tendency to struggle with leverage, and plays with too high a pad level. This leads to a leaning-forward in order to engage defenders which in turn can compromise his balance. As a run blocker, he is slow to disengage from double blocks and get to the second level. In general, he is not the quickest player which in turn can also become a problem on stunts or twists. While he is a powerful player, staying engaged throughout his blocks has been an up-and-down endeavor.
2025 review
Stats: 12 games (0 starts) | 19 offensive snaps (1.4%), 56 special teams snaps (10.2%) | 2 QB pressures surrendered (2 hurries) | 0 penalties
Season recap: Despite already using the fourth overall selection in the 2025 draft to pick up Will Campbell, the Patriots went back to the offensive tackle cupboard in the seventh round: with selection No. 220, they opted to bring in Bryant as a developmental and backup option — and that was precisely how he spent his first season as a pro. Whereas Campbell started all 17 of the games he was available for, his fellow rookie saw minimal action.
Bryant ended up playing 19 offensive snaps on the year split over three games. He was on the field for six snaps each in blowout wins over Carolina and Tennessee, followed by his only meaningful action of the season in Week 12 versus Cincinnati: with starting right tackle Morgan Moses leaving for the locker room in the second quarter, the youngster replaced him for seven snaps.
Those snaps, however, were not necessarily encouraging. While it has to be said that the circumstances did not help him, Bryant still ended up surrendering a pair of quarterback hurries before Moses reentered the contest.
Two days after that game, the Patriots re-signed former practice squad member Thayer Munford Jr. and promptly inserted him as their new backup right tackle as well as a jumbo tight end. How much Bryant’s performance against the Bengals contributed to this is impossible to say from the outside looking in, but the bottom line remains the same: after being on the game day roster for each one of New England’s first 12 contests of the season, he was made a healthy scratch every week down the line.
So, was Bryant’s season a success or a failure? Both, in a way. He managed to earn and keep a spot on the 53-man roster despite a lack of draft pedigree, and also relatively successfully turned from an exclusive left tackle over his final three years in college to a swing option and part-time RT2 behind Morgan Moses. That said, he effectively was demoted for the end of the Patriots’ regular season and their subsequent playoff run.
2026 preview
Position: Swing tackle | Ability: Depth player/Role player | Contract: Signed through 2028 (2029 UFA)
What will be his role? Bryant has played offensive tackle his entire career, and nothing will change in his second season as a pro. The same appears to be true for his standing on the Patriots roster: with Will Campbell, Morgan Moses and Caleb Lomu the clear top three at the position, he will serve in a backup capacity yet again, most likely with a focus on the right side again.
What is his growth potential? Bryant has not been given much in-game opportunity to show growth as a rookie, and ideally little will change in that regard in 2026. This speaks for the quality of players ahead of him on the depth chart and for his own personal outlook: Bryant has NFL-caliber size and some promising traits, but it is har to envision him as anything more than a backup swing tackle or spot starter.
Does he have positional versatility? Even though his positional flexibility is somewhat limited, Bryant is as versatile as he needs to be. He has experience lining up at both left and right tackle, and played 56 snaps as a rookie as part of New England’s field goal and extra point protection team.
What is his salary cap situation? Now in the second year of his rookie contract, Bryant is carrying a salary cap hit of $1.04 million — a number now high enough to qualify for Top 51 status during the offseason. This means that only his fully-guaranteed signing bonus proration ($37k) but not his non-guaranteed base salary ($1.01M) is currently not counted against the Patriots’ books.
How safe is his roster spot? The top of the Patriots’ offensive tackle depth chart is set in stone due to the presence of the aforementioned Will Campbell, Morgan Moses and Caleb Lomu. Realistically, this leaves no more than one or two roster spots available, with Bryant competing against Dametrious Crownover, James Hudson, Sebastian Gutierrez and Lorenz Metz to earn it.
Summary: Unless the Patriots want to go with experience to complement their offensive tackle group, the competition for the fourth and possible final spot could very well come down to sophomore Bryant versus rookie Dametrious Crownover. Based on the spring, when he served as a part-time second-string right tackle, he appears to be ahead of Crownover and the other OTs in this particular competition. Of course, there is a long way to go before roster decisions will be made.
What do you think about Marcus Bryant heading into the 2026 season? Will he play a more prominent role as a sophomore? Will he even make the team? Please head down to the comment section to share your thoughts.
