The New England Patriots again relying on a combination of Vederian Lowe and Caedan Wallace at the left tackle position in 2025 would be a major surprise. While not all was bad for the duo last season, the room for improvement is evident and something the team is well-aware of.

With that improvement not finding its way to Foxboro in free agency, the draft is where New England is expected to pounce. Onto whom, though? Minnesota’s Aireontae Ersery projects as a realistic candidate.

Hard facts

Name: Aireontae Ersery

Position: Offensive tackle

School: Minnesota

Opening day age: N/A

Measurements: 6’6 1/4”, 331 lbs, 80 7/8” wingspan, 33 1/8” arm length, 9 1/2” hand size, 5.01s 40-yard dash, 29 1/2” vertical jump, 9’3” broad jump, 7.81s 3-cone drill, 4.82s short shuttle, 25 bench press reps, 9.43 Relative Athletic Score

Experience

Colleges: Minnesota (2020-24)

Career statistics: 40 games (38 starts) | 2,433 offensive snaps, 54 special teams snaps | 38 pressures surrendered (5 sacks, 7 hits, 26 hurries) | 13 penalties

Accolades: Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year (2024), First-team All-Big Ten (2024), Second-team All-Big Ten (2023), Honorable mention All-Big Ten (2022), Academic All-Big Ten (2021)

Part of the track and field team at Ruskin High School in Kansas City, MO, Ersery only started playing football during his junior year. Two years later, he was a three-star recruit who received multiple college scholarship offers. He decided to move to Minnesota, where he had a slow start and played in only two games over his first two seasons.

From his 2022 sophomore season on, however, he became a mainstay along the Golden Gophers’ offensive line. Ersery started 38 straight games at left tackle to close out his college career, earning All-Big Ten recognition in each of his final three seasons.

Draft profile

Expected round: 2 | Consensus big board: No. 43 | Patriots meeting: Senior Bowl + 30 visit

Strengths: You look at Ersery, you see an NFL offensive tackle. Standing at 6-foot-6 and 331 pounds with an 81-inch wingspan and plus-33-inch arms, he has the build to successfully transition from the college to the pro level. His size alone tends to put him in a favorable position: he is near-impossible to move through power as both a run blocker and a pass protector, while forcing defenders to take unfavorable angles to get around him.

Ersery’s best work has come as a run blocker. He quickly gets off the ball and has the upper-body strength to drive defenders back once engaged. He also moves well laterally, which allows him to execute drive and down blocks and might make for some untapped potential as a puller. He also disengages effectively from double-team blocks.

In pass protection, Ersery is a bit more up and down. That said, his size is again an asset he knows how to use to his advantage. Once engaged with a pass rusher, he is near-impossible to defeat due to his superior grip strength. He also has shown a feel for identifying line games and can mirror defenders well enough to force them into a losing position; his feet are a work in progress but there is a foundation to build on.

Weaknesses: Only really having five years of competitive football on his résumé, Ersery is understandably raw. That shines through especially in the passing game: his hands tend to be all over the place when he is not getting himself in an advantageous position early in the battle, and he seemingly lacks a concrete plan to neutralize defensive counters. His length helps him in that regard, but it is not something he can rely on in the NFL on an every-down basis.

Ersery also has inconsistent feet. His kick slide takes time to develop and does not generate as much depth as you would want from a player his size; overcorrecting measures can lead to him opening up his inside shoulder to counters (something that is true in the run game as well). In general, his lower body lacks fluidity which makes it harder for him to recover and to be a factor when blocking at the second level.

Patriots preview

What would be his role? Ersery would immediately compete for the starting job at left tackle upon joining the Patriots, and he would be a realistic candidate to beat out the aforementioned Vederian Lowe and Caedan Wallace. In turn, he would be an every-down player on the offensive side of the ball from early on in his career and somebody who would not leave the field under normal circumstances.

What is his growth potential? Ersery’s path from promising prospect to no-questions-asked starting offensive tackle starts with his pass sets. Once he gets more consistent with his hand usage and more decisive with his feet, there is no telling how good he can become. The basis is there, of course.

Does he have positional versatility? Ersery started his college career as a right tackle, but he has almost exclusively played on the left side since his true freshman year. In total, 96.3 percent of his snaps at Minnesota have come on that side of the ball; his versatility is therefore more theoretical than anything, especially if installed as a starter. He could help out in the kicking game, though, and serve as a protector on field goal and extra point tries.

Why the Patriots? New England needs to upgrade at left tackle, and Ersery is one of the best prospects available in this year’s draft. He also checks plenty of boxes in regards to his size, physicality in the run game, and developmental upside. Is he as clean a prospect as some others at the position this year? No, but he has the tools to help the Patriots immediately and potentially become Drake Maye’s blindside protector for years to come.

Why not the Patriots? On paper, left tackle is by far the biggest need on the Patriots’ current roster and one they might want to address sooner rather than later. If so, first-round prospects such as LSU’s Will Campbell or Ohio State’s Josh Simmons might be on the team’s mind over Ersery. In addition, they could find some warts in him as a prospect — particularly related to his pass defense — that might make them turn elsewhere.

One-sentence verdict: If the Patriots have not picked a tackle by the time they are on the clock at No. 38 overall in the second round, Ersery seems like a “run to the podium”-type of player despite his aforementioned rawness as a pass protector.