New England Patriots offensive line in 2007: Starters, backups and scrubs
Here’s a look at New England Patriots offensive linemen and the different combinations of starting offensive lines that the team is using in the 2007 season. I’ll update this post as the season chugs along.
New England Patriots starting offensive linemen by game in 2007
| Week | Left Tackle | Left Guard | Center | Right Guard | Right Tackle |
| 1 @ NY Jets | Matt Light | Logan Mankins | Dan Koppen | Stephen Neal | Nick Kaczur |
| 2 vs San Diego | Billy Yates | ||||
| 3 vs. Buffalo | Russ Hochstein | ||||
| 4 @ Cincinnati | Russ Hochstein | ||||
| 5 Cleveland | Russ Hochstein | Stephen Neal | |||
| 6 @ Dallas | Dan Koppen | ||||
| 7 @ Miami | |||||
| 8 Washington | |||||
| 9 @ Indianapolis | |||||
| 11 @ Buffalo | Russ Hochstein | ||||
| 12 vs. Philadelphia | Stephen Neal | ||||
| 13 @ Baltimore | |||||
| 14 vs. Pittsburgh | Russ Hochstein | ||||
| 15 vs. NY Jets | |||||
| 16 vs. Miami | |||||
| 17 @ NY Giants | Ryan O’Callaghan | ||||
| 19* vs. Jacksonville | Stephen Neal | Nick Kaczur | |||
| 20** vs. San Diego | |||||
| 21*** vs. New York Giants |
* AFC Divisional Play-off Game
** AFC Championship Game
*** Super Bowl XLII
Offensive linemen on New England Patriots 53-man roster (position, jersey number, height, weight, number of starts in 2007):
Matt Light (T, #72, 6′4″, 305, 19)
Logan Mankins (G, #70, 6′4″, 310, 19)
Dan Koppen (C, #67, 6′2″, 296, 18)
Stephen Neal (G, #61, 6′4″, 305, 11)
Nick Kaczur (T, #77, 6′4″, 315, 18)
Russ Hochstein (G/C, #71, 6′4″, 305, 8)
Billy Yates (G/C, #74, 6′2″, 305, 1)
Wesley Britt (T, #65, 6′8″, 320, 0)
Ryan O’Callaghan (T, #68, 6′7″, 330, 1)
On the practice squad:
Dan Connolly (added 9/12)
Gone:
Clint Oldenburg (added to the practice squad 9/4, released 9/19)
Pat Ross (added 10/9, released 10/29)
Neal has missed three games because of a shoulder injury. Koppen has missed one game due to a foot injury. Yates was hurt in the game against San Diego Chargers in week 2. Patriots said it was a shoulder injury, but it looked more like a foot injury. Hochstein hurt his foot in a pre-season game. Light was put on the injury report on 10/12 as having come down with the flu.
Previous posts on the 2007 Patriots offensive linemen:
Don’t call New England Patriots left tackle Matt Light a meanderer. Light deftly avoids talking about zone blocking with Mike Felger.
Dan Connolly, Patriots last lineman of offense. After cutting Oldenburg from the practice squad, Patriots added this Connolly fellow.
Can New England Patriots go 19-0 with 19 different starting offensive line combinations? Patriots fans jump on the Perfect Season Bandwgon while I worry about the health of the team’s interior linemen.
Matt Light doesn’t suck and Logan Mankins isn’t a superstar. The hype suggests otherwise, but really, Patriots linemen are more or less all equally good.
Fierce competition on New England Patriots offensive line. Some speculations during training camp.
Here’s an excerpt from the October 26 Bill Belichick press conference where he talks about the challenges that offensive guards face:
Q: What type of year is Logan Mankins having?
BB: Logan’s had a good year. I think our whole line has had a solid season, both in terms of protection and the running game. We’ve seen a lot of different schemes. They work well together, they make good adjustments, work well with the quarterback in terms of communications. Logan really doesn’t have a lot of weak points. He’s strong, athletic, he’s a good pass-protector, he’s a good run-blocker. He can pull. He can block big guys over him.
These days it’s tough on guards, because sometimes you’re lined up against guys like [John] Henderson and [Marcus] Stroud down there at Jacksonville you have to block and then the next week you’re trying to block linebackers, athletic guys like [Jonathan] Vilma and London Fletcher and guys like that who line up. So it goes from playing against some of probably the most powerful people in the league to some very athletic linebackers to some very quick inside pass-rushers that they see over them from week to week, so there’s a big contrast in style for what the guards play, let’s say, as opposed to a left tackle who would get [Aaron] Schobel and Justin Smith, DeMarcus Ware.
And they’re all great players -I’m not saying that. Andre Carter this week. But they all have a similar - they’re athletic, their up-field speed undercut pass rushers that they’re probably not going to see a 320-pound Reggie White kind of guy out there playing defensive right end on our left side. But at guard, you can go the whole gamut and even though you won’t be lining up across from a big, physical player, then on the snap of the ball they stunt and you end up blocking a 230-pound linebacker who’s quick and is an elusive guy to block in space up at the second level.
So it goes from blocking those big guys on the line to running out on a screen pass, trying to block London Fletcher and Rocky MacIntosh and guys like that, where they have a lot of space to work. So it’s tough. Guard it a tough position to play for teams that face multiple defenses and have multiple defenses and have multiple-type plays. But Logan has done a good job. He really does, and he’s handled himself well, like I said, in a lot of different situations.
Q: I know you don’t rate them, but would he be one of the top guards?
BB: He’s a pretty good football player. He’s a pretty good football player. Like I said, he does a lot of things well. Some guys are good run blockers. Some guys are good pass protectors. Some guys that are good pass rushers. Some guys that are good run stoppers. You’ve got guys that can pretty much handle themselves and you don’t mind matching them up against anybody and I’d say that Logan is one of those kind of guys. If he’s matched up against a linebacker or a real quick pass rusher or a guy like Jason Taylor, like last week when they moved Taylor inside and rushed him up the middle or they line him up outside and stunted him inside like Buffalo did with Schobel and the Dolphins did with Taylor.
A lot of the time your guards end up on players like that. Like I said, the next time they’re getting Keith Traylor so it’s not all the same. I know it’s X’s and O’s, but there’s some big X’s and then there are some fast X’s and some quick X’s, but that’s one of the things about an offensive line that’s unique because it’s usually the same five guys. You don’t usually see a lot of rotation there. I know Cincinnati did it, but you don’t see a lot of rotation there so it’s the same five guys, but the match-ups that they have, you watch these shows and they’re matching up this guy’s got to block that guy. Well maybe for 20 plays a game that’s who he’s blocking, but for the other 40 plays it’s somebody else because they’re stunting or they’re blitzing or there’s a game or whatever so it’s a lot of different match-ups for the offensive linemen.
