With only two days to go until their Thursday night game in Chicago, it seems increasingly likely that the New England Patriots will be without both of their starting guards. According to head coach Mike Vrabel, both Alijah Vera-Tucker and Ben Brown are “probably” set to miss the game.
If that indeed turns out to be the case — and practice participation thus far suggests so — the Patriots have multiple directions they could go in. One of them is inserting their first-round draft pick from earlier
this year, Caleb Lomu.
“I think that Caleb will have to be ready to go at multiple positions,” Vrabel told reporters on Tuesday. “We were getting ready for him to have to be able to pull the ball in the game, in another different scenario. Where that ends up being on Thursday — he’ll have to be ready for a couple of spots.”
Lomu joined the Patriots as the 28th overall selection in this year’s draft after almost exclusively lining up at offensive tackle during his college career at Utah. As executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said during a press conference shortly after the pick was made, however, the team did see some versatility in him — versatility it continued to explore in the following months.
Besides playing both left and right tackle in practice, the 6-foot-6, 308-pounder also saw some reps inside during training camp. The Patriots have not yet had to use him in that capacity during a game, but the injuries suffered on Sunday against the New York Jets might prompt them to reconsider.
With Vera-Tucker and Brown unlikely to play due to their respective hamstring and knee injuries, Walter Rouse and Matt Pryor project as the next men up. The two were already inserted into the lineup down the stretch versus the Jets.
If there should there be any hiccups against the Bears, however, the Patriots might just end up turning to Lomu.
“Everyone’s got to prepare like a starter for those types of things that happen,” the 21-year-old said after the win over the Jets. “It’s terrible to see. It does happen, though, unfortunately, in this league.”
