Patriots/Chargers: Who are the 3 key players for each team?

Trent Brown

Poor Trent Brown. He’s the unlucky soul who draws the assignment of stopping the first key player we listed here, Melvin Ingram, from having a monster game on Sunday.

Brown is a relative newcomer to the Patriot Way, coming over from San Francisco to replace longtime left tackle Nate Solder, who signed with the Giants in free agency. Brown is most known for his incredible size and stature: the mountain of a man checks in at 6’8″ and 380 lbs. Those physical intangibles make him an easy sell as a blind-side protector for quarterbacks.

Of course, playing left tackle in the NFL requires more than just being a behemoth. The best tackles in the league have incredible upper-body strength, powerful legs, and exceptional training when it comes to hand placement and technique. Brown, for his part, graded out as ProFootballFocus’ 44th-best tackle in the league, which is good but not great. He’s by no means a liability, but he’s also far from a sure thing out there.

As mentioned earlier, the offensive line as a whole has played exceptionally up to this point in 2018. They’ll need to keep it up on Sunday in order to give Brady enough time to be Brady – at 41, he’s not nearly as mobile in the pocket as he used to be.

Too many times, Patriots fans have seen Brady see pressure coming and flutter the ball into the ground or up into the stands. That won’t cut it against a team as dangerous as the Chargers, so it all starts with Brown keeping Ingram at bay for 60 minutes.