For the past few seasons, the New England Patriots had one of the oldest rosters in the league. While this veteran-heavy team-building approach led to a lot of wins, it also left the team playing for a short-term window. The departure of Tom Brady effectively ended one era of the team, yet New England remains competitive thanks to a youth movement headlined by Michael Onwenu and Chase Winovich. While these two might not be primary reasons for New England’s 2020 success (a guard and an edge defender will never be as valuable as a quarterback and a coaching staff), both players are starting to establish themselves as the faces of the next generation of the franchise.
New England Patriots Youth Movement Headed By Michael Onwenu, Chase Winovich
Michael Onwenu: The Steal of the 2020 NFL Draft
As mentioned in our draft profile, Michael Onwenu flashed a lot of the skills you like to see in a collegiate athlete. An absolute monster of a man, Onwenu was simply unstoppable in the trenches and excelled at opening run lanes. At the time, he was a great value in the sixth round, but most people (including me) thought he had a fairly limited ceiling and would never be anything more than a solid starter.
Through four games, Onwenu has exceeded even the wildest expectations set before him. By all measurements, the Michigan product has come out of the gate as one of the NFL’s elite guards. He’s arguably the best rookie in all of football, and his 92.2 PFF grade is second-best among guards. We are dealing with an admittedly small sample here, but it’s hard to find anything bad on Onwenu’s tape.
Nobody doubted Onwenu’s ability to win in one-on-one situations, as he has the size and strength to move just about anyone. However, nobody expected him to look this good this quickly. The rookie has yet to find a defender he’s not willing to destroy, and his versatility is an unexpected surprise. Throughout the season, the Patriots have used Onwenu at guard, tackle, tight end, and fullback, and the rookie always answers the call.
I went ahead and made a quick tape of my favorite trait of Onwenu; heavy handiness. You can see how often he makes the heads of defenders snap back on contact + how they visibly bounce off of him. It's one of the more fun things to uncover watching OL film. pic.twitter.com/90LFRoHVXb
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) October 7, 2020
While his future definitely lies at guard, I certainly didn’t expect him to be this effective in space. He made amazing strides with his footwork over the offseason and could be in the conversation for the NFL’s best guard in a season or two. Barring something completely unforeseen, he’ll be opening lanes and protecting the quarterback in New England for a long time.
Chase Winovich
Chase Winovich isn’t quite as dominant as Onwenu, but the second-year pro is already proving to be a fixture along the defensive line. Through four weeks, Winovich has 2.5 sacks, three tackles-for-loss, and six quarterback hits. These numbers are fine on their own, but they don’t tell the full story. New England’s scheme oftentimes asks their linemen to eat blockers and free up space for others to make plays. This is where the advanced metrics come in.
ESPN has invented two metrics that attempt to better contextualize work in the trenches: Pass Block Win Rate and Run Block Win Rate. Simply put, these statistics determine the rate at which a blocker wins their respective assignment. While far from perfect, it’s one of the better ways to get a general feel for defensive line play. As mentioned in a previous article, Winovich is absolutely dominating both metrics.
While his PFF grade isn’t quite as high, the advanced analytics website still has him as the 28th-best edge defender in football. As discussed earlier, this disparity probably exists because the Patriots are asking Winovich to spend too much time on the defensive interior. Once a big-bodied guy like Beau Allen comes back, Winovich should thrive in a more natural role.
Even without the pandemic, the 2020 season was always going to be a weird one for New England. With so many new faces in town, the Patriots needed some homegrown talent to establish themselves as legitimate stars. So far, Michael Onwenu and Chase Winovich have answered that call.
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