{"id":40789,"date":"2018-03-22T17:23:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T21:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=40789"},"modified":"2018-03-22T17:23:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T21:23:18","slug":"patriots-reach-deal-laadrian-waddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/03\/22\/patriots-reach-deal-laadrian-waddle\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Patriots Reach Deal With LaAdrian Waddle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New England Patriots<\/a> have reportedly agreed to a one-year deal with offensive tackle <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WaddLa01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LaAdrian Waddle<\/a><\/strong>. The news comes as a pleasant surprise after losing <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SoldNa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nate Solder<\/a><\/strong> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/giants\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Giants<\/a>. Together, Waddle and Solder make up two-thirds of the team&#8217;s free agent offensive tackles.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Source: The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Patriots?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Patriots<\/a> keep an important free agent after all. They\u2019ve agreed to terms with OT LaAdrian Waddle on a 1-year deal. Their potential LT.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/976910146919194625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>New England Patriots Re-Sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WaddLa01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LaAdrian Waddle<\/a> to One-Year Deal<\/h1>\n<p>On the list of off-season concerns for the Patriots, the gaps at the offensive tackle position were perhaps the most important to fill. The loss of Solder and the possibility of losing Waddle and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FlemCa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cameron Fleming<\/a><\/strong> left the Patriots <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2018\/03\/13\/new-england-patriots-offensive-line\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dangerously close<\/a> to empty at the position.<\/p>\n<p>Waddle was the backup right tackle last year and technically the third-stringer. If the Patriots don&#8217;t re-sign Fleming, and with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CannMa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcus Cannon<\/a><\/strong> expected back next season, it&#8217;s likely that Waddle will shift to the left and cover <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s blind side. Both Waddle and Fleming recently visited the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/cowboys\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, but clearly, Waddle felt his position in New England was more valuable.<\/p>\n<p>With Cannon back, Waddle will return to a lineup of relative no-names such as <strong>Andrew Jelks<\/strong> and<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CrosCo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cole Croston<\/a><\/strong>. Jelks has yet to play a professional game since being picked up by the Patriots last year. Even worse, Jelks hasn&#8217;t played a game of football since 2014 after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patspulpit.com\/2017\/12\/1\/16713046\/new-england-patriots-rookie-offensive-tackle-andrew-jelks-vanderbilt-non-football-injury-list\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">back-to-back ACL tears<\/a>. <strong>Antonio Garcia<\/strong>, one of their 2017 draft picks, sat out all of last season after suffering from blood clots in his lungs. However, he was <a href=\"https:\/\/musketfire.com\/2018\/03\/21\/new-england-patriots-antonio-garcia-cleared-play\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently cleared to return to football<\/a>. Nonetheless, Garcia remains untested in the NFL. The team also signed <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/T\/TobiMa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Tobin<\/a><\/strong> to a one-year deal, but we don&#8217;t anticipate Tobin making the final roster.<\/p>\n<p>Even <strong>Dante Scarnecchia<\/strong> would have trouble with this lineup.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves two good offensive tackles in the rotation if the Patriots cannot also re-sign Fleming. Having Waddle back is helpful, but the Patriots still need to push for Fleming. Picking up another offensive tackle in this year&#8217;s draft wouldn&#8217;t be a terrible idea either. <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2018\/03\/patriots-mock-draft-biggest-remaining-need-filled-in-first-round\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Some mock drafts<\/a> have the team picking up <a href=\"http:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2018\/03\/09\/kolton-miller-2018-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kolton Miller<\/strong><\/a> out of UCLA. Miller&#8217;s numbers are eerily similar to Solder, making him a likely candidate to fill the left tackle position.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"MyPd_H27QwJXrjkFyTNZFw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/888587666\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'MyPd_H27QwJXrjkFyTNZFw',sig:'fxdwQMWa5Y4AcCAPa2XiRW7lcZ1_kr2UO6ABPZkc3Bc=',w:'594px',h:'397px',items:'888587666',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots have reportedly agreed to a one-year deal with offensive tackle LaAdrian Waddle. The news comes as a pleasant surprise after losing Nate Solder to the New York Giants. Together, Waddle and Solder make up two-thirds of the team&#8217;s free agent offensive tackles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2508,"featured_media":40798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,36],"tags":[61,3653,3378,3616,38,40],"class_list":["post-40789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots","category-nfl-news","tag-football","tag-kolton-miller","tag-laadrian-waddle","tag-nate-solder","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}