3 Patriots who played themselves off the roster after preseason Week 2

The Patriots had a chaotic week of practice leading into their preseason game against the Eagles on Thursday night, with their worst showing being in the teams' joint practice on Tuesday. It was a solid example of how much work the Patriots have to do to be a contender again, but that wasn't exactly the case in their Week 2 matchup.

The game was mostly evenly matched, with the Eagles not showing any real advantage over the ever-developing home team. The Patriots' defense impressed despite Matthew Judon's absence. It was a main concern moving forward, as he had been the most successful pass rusher, but they didn't miss a beat without the four-time Pro Bowler.

The offense shined sporadically throughout the evening, with Drake Maye having the most impressive performance of all the quarterbacks. But it also brought to light the deficiencies of the offensive line, an issue that will hopefully be addressed before the regular season.

With that in mind, at least three players had a rough time against their opponents, all of whom are on the offense, which might lead to their eventual release.

3 Patriots who played themselves off the roster after preseason Week 2

T Vederian Lowe

Jerod Mayo has made it apparent that they are still trying to figure out the perfect offensive line roster to put on the field this upcoming season. Because of that, he has been experimenting with the lineup in practice and preseason games.

It has led to various players filling the left and right tackle positions over the last several weeks, with Vederian Lowe seemingly becoming the favorite on the left side. Despite his forgettable performance from last season, the 25 year old has played well enough to remain the starter at the position in the eyes of the offensive coaches.

However, he didn't perform as well as they hoped against the Eagles on Thursday night.

He received the only penalty on the Patriots of the night with a false start and is credited for a sack and a quarterback hit on Drake Maye. While it is noteworthy that the offensive line held off a sack until under three minutes into the third quarter, Lowe's mishaps were bad enough to almost make you forget the silver lining of it all.

There's still one more preseason game and plenty of practices for Lowe to prove he can be a solid addition to the 2024 roster, but it might be time for the Patriots to make another change at left tackle to see if another player will fare better in his place.

G Atonio Mafi

As if there aren't enough problems on the offensive line already, we can unfortunately add Atonio Mafi to the list of problematic performances this week.

He saw his first action later in the game and was put on the field to help protect Joe Milton III, who was sacked two times for -15 yards. Considering he was only in long enough to attempt seven passes, it's not exactly great that he was brought to the ground twice in that short amount of time.

To make matters worse, it looked like Mafi was responsible for both sacks. On top of that, one looked completely avoidable as he walked into Milton, forcing the quarterback to struggle to get back into position to make a play.

Mafi has had a struggle-filled summer, and performances like this aren't doing him any favors.

Every center not named David Andrews

Why not make it a full round of offensive linemen being the biggest standouts for all the wrong reasons in this game?

That appears to be the most logical conclusion based on what we saw on Thursday night. On top of the left tackle and guard having poor showings, every center except for longtime starter David Andrews had an off night, leading to multiple bad plays resulting in negative yardage or turnovers.

You know it was bad when Andrews could be seen on the sideline with the same reaction throughout the game.

It's another problem to add to the offensive line's long list of struggles, which makes the quarterback's job even harder. There isn't much Mayo can do about the roster now because it is so late into the preseason, but it might be worth exploring some free agent options.

Otherwise, it's hard to imagine he'll be able to put together a suitable and trustworthy o-line to put Brissett or Maye behind this season.

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