Bill Belichick explains why the Patriots traded for two offensive linemen with the season two weeks away

On Monday, Bill Belichick provided a brief look at the two offensive linemen the Patriots acquired Sunday, Tyrone Wheatley Jr. and Vederian Lowe.
Wheatley was acquired from the Browns in exchange for running back Pierre Strong, while the Patriots dealt a sixth-round pick to the Vikings for Lowe.
“Both have primarily played on the left side, although Tyrone hasn’t played a lot of tackle. But they’ve also played on the right, and we’ll see what else they can do,” Belichick said. “We’ll see.
“Sidy [Sow] hardly played any tackle at all in his career and has exclusively played tackle since he’s been here. So we’ll just have to see how that plays out. But they were available, we’re looking forward to working with both of them.”
Both are short on NFL experience; Wheatley, 26, has not played in a regular-season NFL game and appeared in a pair of preseason games for Cleveland this summer, working at right and left tackle. Lowe played in four games last season with Minnesota. The 24-year-old appeared in all three of the Vikings’ preseason games this year, playing 100 percent of the offensive snaps in the first two. Both are 6 feet 6 inches and 320 pounds.
Belichick said the trade with the Browns was a natural fit, as Cleveland was looking for running back depth, while the Patriots needed depth at tackle.
“After signing Zeke [Elliott], we felt like we had a little more depth at the running back position, and had less depth on the offensive line,” he said.
Wheatley and Lowe could help shore up a position where depth has been an issue all summer. Right guard Mike Onwenu, who underwent offseason surgery on his ankle, made his first appearance on the practice field last week. Left guard Cole Strange went down a few weeks ago with an undisclosed injury, and while he’s been at practice, he has been limited.
And Riley Reiff, a veteran signed as a free agent in the offseason who has been playing right guard this summer, went down with an injury in the preseason finale against the Titans, and was not spotted at practice Sunday.
“It’s an insurance policy that you don’t know whether you’re going to need or not,” Belichick said. “One of the things about the offensive line is the amount of teamwork and communication that goes with those five players. Putting a new one in is not the easiest thing to do; it’s never easy, but it’s not the easiest thing to do because of the coordination that needs to take place between all five of those players.
“We did that last year with Conor [McDermott]; we were forced to. And he did a good job of it. It was probably about as good of a transition as I could have hoped for. But that’s not really the way that you want to go.
“You try and have as much depth on your roster because of the contingencies, not knowing for sure when you’re going to need that. Tom Brady got hurt in 2008, first game, and turns out you need depth at that position with [Matt] Cassel. And that never happened again.”
QB McSorley cut
The Patriots continued the cutdown process Monday, parting ways with quarterback Trace McSorley and punter Corliss Waitman.
McSorley, who was the third-string quarterback, finished the preseason 1-for-4 passing for 4 yards. The 6-foot, 201-pounder was also sacked twice. The 28-year-old Penn State product is a candidate to return as a member of the practice squad.
Waitman, 28, was signed as a free agent on March 23. The 6-2, 215-pounder punted five times in the preseason and finished with an average of 43 yards per punt. The South Alabama product is also a candidate to return via the practice squad.
Teams have to be down to 53 players by 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Economics lesson
On his appearance Monday on WEEI, Belichick was asked about cap spending vs. cash spending.
“Cash spending isn’t really that relevant; it’s cap spending,” Belichick said. “So teams that spend a lot of cash one year probably don’t spend a lot of cash in the next year because you just can’t sustain that. So we’ve had high years, we’ve had low years, but our cap spending has always been high. And that’s the most competitive position you can be in.
“There’s a salary cap and we spend to the salary cap. That’s what’s important.”
Belichick was asked about not going “all in” when it came to cash spending.
“Temporarily you can, but you can’t sustain it. No,” he said. “You can’t sustain the 20 years of success that we sustained by overspending every year without having to eventually pay those bills and play with a lesser team.
“So I think if you look at the teams that have done that, that’s kind of where some of them ended up. Jacksonville back in ‘14, the Rams are going through it, Tampa is going through it now.
“So I’m not saying there’s anything right or wrong with it. It’s just a different way of doing things and there’s the results for doing that.”
To Belichick’s point, according to Over the Cap, the Rams and Buccaneers both have more than $74 million in dead money on their books for 2023. The bill will come due, one way or another.
Getting a jump
Between Sunday’s cuts and the trades, the Patriots entered Monday with 79 players on the roster. Like every team in the league, they need to get down to 53 by Tuesday at 4 p.m. Belichick was asked why they got a jump on things by announcing 11 cuts Sunday.
“There’s a number of reasons for that,” he said. “One of them being just volume. We have to make 37 transactions. And in some cases, where the decision is clear-cut, I think it just helps the player get a little bit of a head start on his future. We don’t have a spot for them here.
“They’ve worked hard. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do. They’ve done their best. Maybe there’s a spot for them somewhere else? Giving them the opportunity to get out there, a little bit ahead of the pack and at least know they can start to put some feelers out, or their agent will start to work on it.
“You don’t want to not give those players at least the time and courtesy of an explanation and a decision and closure to it, if you will. I think they deserve that based on what they’ve given me.”