Van Roten Is Questionable, and New England's Guard Room Has No Margin Left

Wrote the Onwenu piece four days ago. Now Greg Van Roten is questionable, and the depth chart at guard is essentially Ben Brown and Jake Kubas — two names who haven't logged meaningful snaps this season. That's the room.

Onwenu going on IR was the first domino. The Patriots reworked his contract with performance incentives this offseason, which told you how central he was to the plan up front. With him gone and Van Roten's status uncertain, New England is one more missed practice away from starting a guard who hasn't proven he can hold up at this level. The depth chart shows Brown as the top option behind the starters, with Kubas behind him — neither with production on file.

What makes this uncomfortable is the context around Drake Maye. He had a franchise-defining season, and the offensive skill pieces — Henderson, Diggs, Henry — are all active and healthy. The line is the one place where the margin has evaporated. A quarterback running for 628 yards is partly a weapon; it can also be a sign that the pocket isn't clean. If Van Roten can't go, that pocket gets smaller.

My read: this is the most concrete interior problem on the roster right now, and it's happening at the wrong time of year to fix it cleanly. The Patriots will manage. But they're managing with very little room.