Caedan Wallace Turns the Corner: Rookie OT’s Improved Play Bodes Well for Future
Their upcoming season finale against the Buffalo Bills could be an opportunity for some of the New England Patriots’ younger players to see some extended playing time. Among those is offensive tackle Caedan Wallace.
But while the rookie has shown promise behind the scenes lately, according to his position coach, he still will not draw the start over incumbent right tackle Demontrey Jacobs come Sunday.
“Coach has got the starters going,” said Patriots offensive line coach Scott Peters on Friday. “But Caedan’s done a nice job recently getting ready and showing improvement in practice.”
Wallace joined the Patriots as a third-round pick in the 2024 draft, and was seen as a candidate to compete for a starting spot at either left or right tackle. However, he was unable to do so over the course of training camp and eventually entered the season as a backup swing option.
As such, he made his first career start in place of an injured Vederian Lowe in Week 3. However, Wallace struggled and eventually did not go wire-to-wire in the blowout loss. The following week, he was back to reserve duty before suffering an ankle injury while serving as an extra blocker on a short-yardage run play.
That injury forced the Patriots to send him to injured reserve. He only returned to the game day roster last week, playing 15 snaps at right tackle late in a 40-7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
“Caedan had a difficult year in the sense that he got injured, had a little hiatus there with the injury, which took him out,” said Peters. “But he’s been back and he’s done a really nice job, has really turned it on toward the end of the season. So, some really promising things with Caedan and hopefully he’ll get a chance to get a limited role or maybe an additional role in the game.”
