After losing both starting right guard Mike Onwenu and his replacement, Greg Van Roten, to injury in back-to-back games, the New England Patriots have reacted. Nine-year veteran Matt Pryor is being signed to the 53-man roster off the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad.
Poaching Pryor adds an extra layer of depth up front and gives New England more flexibility in its efforts to replace Van Roten and, by extension, Onwenu. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Necessary move
In light of their recent injuries at right guard, the Patriots’
hand was forced. Sunday’s 35-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, after all, showed that the position is in a dire condition.
Walter Rouse, who entered the contest in the second quarter after Van Roten was lost to a thigh issue, struggled in his Patriots debut. Of course, the circumstances did him no favors: he is a third-stringer who had only joined the team via trade in late August and had no prior regular season experience at right guard; expecting big things out of him as an in-game addition to the offensive line would be naive.
Still, the Patriots needed somebody to fill in for Van Roten, and Rouse practiced that role leading up to the game. Whether he will be the starter this week against Buffalo is seemingly up in the air, with veteran Ben Brown — New England’s backup left guard and center last Sunday — and now Pryor also candidates. The latter overtaking both immediately would be a surprise given his late arrival during the week, though.
Experience and versatility
Speaking of experience and versatility, Pryor has both of them in spades. Originally a sixth-round draft pick by the Eagles in 2018, he has appeared in 111 regular season and playoff contests with 40 starts over the course of his career.
In those games, he lined up all over the place. With the exception of center, he has 100-plus snaps on his résumé at every single offensive line position. More than half of his 3,104 career reps have come at right guard, and it would not be a surprise if the Patriots brought him in with that particular position in mind.
Even so, several questions remain. Would he become the starter at some point, supposedly with Rouse as his backup? Or would Rouse or Brown, who entered Wednesday’s practice in a two-way competition, continue to duke it out after all? And if Brown, New England’s original No. 4 interior lineman before a preseason ankle injury, ends up winning the battle, will he still serve as backup center? If not, who then?
Having Pryor in the mix increases the personnel flexibility, and allows the Patriots to move their pieces around as they see fit. In itself, however, it won’t address all of the team’s uncertainties along the interior O-line either.
Three-week guarantee
While his eventual role remains to be seen, we already know that Pryor will be on the Patriots’ 53-man roster for at least the next three weeks — those are the rules for players signed off another team’s practice squad. Even in the unlikely case that he gets released before those three weeks are over, he would remain on full-pay status and take up a roster spot for at least that period.
As a player with more than seven accrued seasons under his belt, his weekly base salary will be $72,222 for a total of $1.083 million over the remainder of the season.
One spot open
Despite sending safety Dell Pettus and outside linebacker Quintayvious Hutchins to injured reserve ahead of last week’s game in Jacksonville, the Patriots opted not to immediately fill their spots on the roster. They instead relied on practice squad elevations — Mike Brown and Jeremiah Pharms Jr. — to improve their depth on the defensive side of the ball versus the Jaguars.
This meant that the team had only 51 players signed entering this week. Pryor has taken the 52nd spot now, but how the Patriots will handle the 53rd is anybody’s guess at this point in time.
One option would be to leave it open through the trip to Buffalo with the purpose of activating a player from an injury list once they become eligible next week. Safety and special teams captain Brenden Schooler appears to be a prime candidate after he already returned to practice last week.
