The offseason acquisition is the top option at a position of need.
While the spotlight is, unsurprisingly, on the quarterback position heading toward the 2024 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots also have significant needs elsewhere on their roster. The most prominent “other” position is left tackle, where the departure of Trent Brown created a big gap both literally and figuratively.
The expectation is that the team will invest in a left tackle prospect next week, but there are questions whether he will actually start in Year 1. If not, it appears New England might turn to one of its free agency acquisitions.
According to director of scouting Eliot Wolf, who held a pre-draft press conference at Gillette Stadium on Thursday, Chukwuma Okorafor looks like the top left tackle on the roster right now.
“If the season started tomorrow, I think it would be Okorafor,” Wolf said while acknowledging that “that is probably more of a question for Coach [Jerod] Mayo.”
Okorafor joined the Patriots on a one-year contract just before the start of free agency. Given the structure of that deal — $3.125 million of its $4 million base value are fully guaranteed — the 26-year-old is a safe bet to make the roster. He also could earn an additional $4.25 million through play time incentives.
In case New England does not draft a player capable of competing for starting reps at left tackle out of the gate, Okorafor looks like a solid fallback option. That is the case even though a majority of his experience in the NFL has come on the right end of the line.
A third-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2018, Okorafor has played only two left tackle snaps over the course of his career compared to 3,974 on the right side. All 61 of his career starts before his release in February have come at right tackle, too.
That said, he would not be a total stranger to playing on the left side of the line as Wolf made sure to point on Thursday.
“He played in there in college. And so we went back and watched that film, obviously evaluating him when he was coming out,” he said. “And he’s an athletic, big guy. So, we feel like he can make that transition back to playing on the left.”
Whether the Patriots will need him to remains to be seen. They do seem to have prepared themselves for that possibility.
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