On Sunday, the New England Patriots traded for two offensive tackles. First, they traded 2021 fourth-round running back Pierre Strong Jr. to the Cleveland Browns for Tyrone Wheatley Jr. Later in the day, they executed another trade. This time, they sent a sixth-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings for tackle Vederian Lowe.

It remains to be seen whether these players will have an impact or make the 53-man roster. However, based on the preseason, it was evident that the Patriots desperately need help at both tackle positions. The Patriots finished the preseason ranked as the 19th pass-blocking unit and the 24th run-blocking unit, according to PFF. This only confirms what the eye test suggests: the team needs help along the offensive line, and fast.

Belichick discussed the team's acquisitions in his press conference today. When asked about how quickly we may see either player contribute, Belichick said, "Yeah, I don’t know. We’ll have to work with them and see how it goes. I can’t answer that until we’ve had them out there."

When asked why he wanted to work with Lowe, Belichick said, "He’s a player that we felt like could compete on the offensive line and give us some depth there and see how it goes. Young player, he’s played a lot of tackle in his career at Illinois and at Minnesota. He may have some position flexibility, I don’t know, I’ll have to work with him and see."

Lowe is a promising prospect at offensive tackle who has had minimal playing time in the NFL. He only played 33 snaps in the regular season last year, and that was during his rookie season. However, he did flash some upside in his limited snaps.

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Belichick was asked about their positional versatility and projecting where either player might contribute: "Both have primarily played on the left side, although Tyrone hasn’t played a lot of tackle, but they’ve both also played on the right, and we’ll see what else they can do. I don’t know, we’ll see. Sidy [Sow] played hardly any tackle at all in his career, and he’s played a lot of tackle – exclusively played tackle since he’s been here. We’ll just have to see how that plays out, but they were available, and we’re looking forward to working with both of them. We’ll see how it goes."

When asked about the value of depth along the offensive line, Belichick said, "Well, depth’s important at every position on your roster. You just don’t know when you’re going to need it." he continued "It’s just an insurance policy that you don’t know whether you’re going to need or not, so one of the things about the offensive line is the amount of teamwork and communication that goes with those five players. "

Belichick referenced the struggles at right tackle last season by referring to McDermott being thrust into a starting role. "We did that last year with Conor [McDermott]. We were forced to, and he did a good job of it. It was probably about as good of a transition as I could have hoped for. But, that’s not really the way that you want to go. You’d like to be able to have somebody that’s familiar with your system, that’s been doing it. Whether they’ve been on the starting lineup or not, at least they’re familiar with everything you’ve been doing, the communication, the calls, the adjustments, things like that, if possible."

Belichick also didn't have much of an update on Mike Onwenu or Cole Stange's week one status, describing their situations as "day to day". He had a similar sentiment for Calvin Anderson, who still remains on the NFI(non-football injury) list and has yet to be part of the offseason programs saying, "Not sure. We’ll see how that goes. Again, we’ll continue to monitor his situation, and when he’s medically cleared, then we will have a decision to make. He’s not medically cleared. We will see." If the Patriots don't activate Anderson by the 53-man roster cut-down deadline on Tuesday at 4 pm, he will have to miss the first four weeks of the regular season."

The Patriots are less than two weeks away from their season opener, and their starting offensive line has yet to take the field as a unit. Between injuries to both guards Cole Strange, and Michael Onwenu plus the team's uncertainty at right tackle, they face an uphill battle to prepare for one of the most dominant pass-rushing units in recent memory, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Featured image via Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports