The New England Patriots have been practicing this week as if it were a regular season game, as they're set to play their preseason finale against the Washington Commanders on Sunday night.
During Wednesday's practice, New England suffered a loss that could be consequential, as starting left tackle Vederian Lowe left the session about halfway through. ESPN's Mike Reiss reported that he walked off the practice fields under his own power and had his hand on his side/lower back.
Lowe has been the team's top left tackle in most of their training camp sessions and the first two preseason games of the year.
New England traded a sixth-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings last year for the 25-year-old, and he ended up playing in 11 games and starting eight of them while splitting time between both tackle spots.
After Lowe departed, third-round pick Caedan Wallace took his spot with the starters. The former Nittany Lion was expected to compete for the starting job with veteran free-agent signing Chukwuma Okorafor earlier in the offseason.
If Wallace can't handle the position yet, Okorafor could flip to the left side or Calvin Anderson, who has been injured as well, could take over. If Okorafor were to flip to left, that could allow Michael Onwenu, who has been playing guard so far this year, to kick back out to right tackle.
New England has options, and it's unclear how severe Lowe's injury is, but they need to figure something out quickly.
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