Unbelievable player named Patriots x-factor for 2024 season

When looking at the Patriots 2024 roster, there aren't many names that garner a lot of excitement from fans and reporters. Maybe it's because they are a team in progress, undergoing a rebuild with many young players hoping to establish themselves on the team and in the NFL.

Or most have worries dominating their thoughts about the season ahead and it's difficult to ignore the concerns about the roster's biggest weaknesses to even consider being excited about any of their upcoming performances.

Regardless of which side you're on, most can agree that the offensive line is one of the more troublesome groups of the entire team, mainly due to their inconsistent production during training camp and preseason. Although the statistics will tell you they weren't completely horrible, the racking up of penalties and inadequate protection of the quarterbacks doesn't provide much optimism for the offense's immediate future.

That's partly what makes ESPN's Ben Solak's pick of the Patriots' x-factor player for the 2024 season all the more surprising, even if his unique criteria are slightly understandable.

The Patriots 2024 x-factor player could define the offense's production this fall

Throughout the preseason, the offensive line was the focus any time the offense was on the field outside of the quarterback. Because they were the most troubled group last year and the new regime put in effort to make them a better unit, there is a lot of pressure on them to be a formidable line or protection no matter who is under center.

Outside of stars David Andrews and Mike Onwenu, the rest of the o-line roster hasn't provided much comfort in how they will protect the quarterback or open up the run game, with a few names being at the top of the list as more concerning.

One of those players is Vederian Lowe, who the Patriots coaches insisted on being in the starting offensive line group throughout the summer, despite a list of bad showings during practice.

That's why he makes sense for one-half of Solak's definition of an x-factor player for the season, which he describes as “if [INSERT TEAM HERE] is surprisingly good/surprisingly bad this season, it was likely because of [INSERT PLAYER HERE].” If the Patriots offense is bad, it's probably fair to assume Lowe is a contributing factor.

However, if the Patriots offense plays well, the belief that Lowe could be one of the more credited names is almost impossible to imagine, no matter how much we might want to believe it.

"Lowe must take a big step forward if he’s going to hold onto the job. If he’s struggling, the Patriots will put Wallace out there in his stead and let the young player start to develop.

And if Lowe is struggling, it’ll be harder to insert Maye into the lineup and get the rookie quarterback the valuable reps he needs, as the coaching staff will fear a rookie-season injury to Maye off the blind side. If Lowe can hold his water, the path forward for New England is immediately accelerated.”

Solak makes fair points, especially since the Patriots have struggled to find the perfect guy for the left tackle role. If Lowe can hold that down and succeed in that position, then there's no reason to believe the offense won't be on far better ground than anyone expected.

However, if he isn't able to do that, there aren't experienced and proven options behind him that would immediately improve the situation. Most of those who could replace Lowe are just as inexperienced as, if not more, than he is in the NFL.

Unfortunately, all we can do is wait and see, crossing our fingers in hopes that they'll be better prepared and exceed all the low expectations placed on them ahead of Week 1.

More Patriots news and analysis: