For a second straight year, the New England Patriots decided to double-dip at offensive tackle in the NFL Draft. After going with Will Campbell and Marcus Bryant in 2025, they selected Caleb Lomu and Dametrious Crownover in 2026. Campbell and Lomu are obviously roster locks this year given that they both were picked in the first rounds of their respective drafts.
Bryant and Crownover, meanwhile, will be competing for what might not be more than one open offensive tackle spot. We already took a closer look at Marcus Bryant earlier in our Patriots scouting report series; now it’s time to dive into Dametrious Crownover.
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Hard facts
Name: Dametrious Crownover
Position: Offensive tackle
Jersey number: 68
Opening day age: 24 (9/12/2001)
Measurements: 6’7 1/4”, 319 lbs, 10” hand size, 35 5/8” arm length, 86” wingspan, 5.14s 40-yard dash, 7.88s 3-cone drill, 4.98s short shuttle, 7.82 Relative Athletic Score
Experience
NFL: New England Patriots (2026-) | College: Texas A&M (2021-25)
A tight end and defensive lineman at Grandview, TX, High School (as well as a four-year basketball letterman), Crownover received some quality offers as a three-star recruit. Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and LSU were among the teams showing interest in him, but he eventually decided to. stay close to home and committed to Texas A&M during his senior season.
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Crownover joined the Aggies as a tight end, but after redshirting his freshman year made the transition to offensive tackle. He played a backup role the next two seasons before taking over as the starting right tackle in 2024. In total, he ended his five-year college career with 47 in-game appearances and 28 starts.
He went on to get selected 196th overall in the sixth round of this year’s draft by the Patriots.
Scouting report
Strengths: Standing at 6-foot-7 and 319 pounds, Crownover is a physical specimen who — unlike fellow Patriots offensive tackle Will Campbell — is facing no questions about his length: his 35 3/8-inch arms rank in the 88th percentile, with his 86-inch wingspan in the 95th percentile among offensive tackles. His massive reach allows him to cover plenty of ground without much effort and creates challenges for defenders, who have a hard time getting into his chest. He complements his build with some solid agility, a remnant of his tight end days. In addition, he can sink a firm anchor in pass protection and generate movement with his feet in the run game.
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Weaknesses: Crownover has only four seasons as an offensive lineman on his résumé and it shows. His hand technique remains a work in progress, and he has a rudimentary understanding of how to recover once challenged upon initial contact. His footwork is also quite raw, throwing his timing off and giving opponents openings to get past him (or at least put him in uncomfortable situations, something that directly contributed to some penalty issues in his two seasons as a starter). His size, while an advantage in some respects, has proven to be a problem as well: he needs to get better at keeping his pads low and using leverage to his advantage.
2025 review
Stats: 13 games (13 starts) | 784 offensive snaps | 27 QB pressures surrendered (2 sacks, 2 hits, 23 hurries) | 11 penalties (incl. 0 declined/offsetting)
Season recap: After cracking Texas’ starting lineup in 2024, Crownover opted to stay in school for his final year of eligibility. He returned to his spot on the right side of the Aggies’ offensive line and continued to show exemplary durability: the redshirt senior hardly left the field and at the end of the season ranked third on his team with 784 offensive snaps, all but two of them coming at right tackle (the others came at left guard).
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But while his 2025 campaign was a continuation of his 2024 season in many respects, Crownover took a slight statistical step back. After giving up 19 quarterback disruptions with no sacks in 13 games as a junior, that number jumped to 27 with two QB takedowns in 13 games as a senior.
With more pass blocking snaps on the menu, his success rate decreased only slightly from 94.5% to a still-respectable 93.7%. However, it still was trending in the wrong direction — something that is also true for his penalty count: after getting flagged three times the previous season, he was penalized on 11 occasions in his final season, including four times in a game against Notre Dame. Seven of those infractions came in the form of false starts.
All of that being said, Crownover still had plenty of encouraging moments. He looked particularly good as a road-grader in the run game, helping the Aggies to 835 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 139 carries to the right (an average of 6.0 yards/carry).
2026 preview
Position: Right tackle | Ability: Depth player/Role player | Contract: Signed through 2029 (2030 UFA)
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What will be his role? Crownover worked almost exclusively as a right tackle in college, and the Patriots have decided on this position as his pro-level starting point as well. He spent the spring repping in his usual spot, albeit as a third-string option behind the likes of Morgan Moses/Caleb Lomu and Marcus Bryant.
What is his growth potential? Despite playing 47 games and 1,886 offensive snaps during his college career, Crownover is still a relatively underdeveloped player from a technical perspective. If he can show improvement in this area to further accentuate his rare physical gifts, he very well could develop into a top-level backup or maybe even a starting option further down the line.
Does he have positional versatility? Leaving out his background as a tight end and defensive lineman, Crownover’s versatility is somewhat limited. He did play some snaps in college at left tackle and left guard — a combined 24, to be exact — but is first and foremost a right tackle at this point in his career. In addition, he has some experience on the field goal and extra point protection team despite seeing no special teams action in 2025.
What is his salary cap situation? Crownover signed a four-year rookie contract with the Patriots after the draft that comes with a $954,108 cap hit in 2026. That number consists of a $885,000 base salary and a $69,108 signing bonus proration, the latter of those two being fully-guaranteed and therefore counted against New England’s books even under the Top 51 rule. The salary, meanwhile, will only become relevant if he makes the 53-man roster out of training camp (or, at a lower rate, joins the practice squad).
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How safe is his roster spot? Despite some intriguing attributes, Crownover finds himself on the roster bubble this summer. The Patriots, after all, have three offensive tackle roster spots locked in already (Will Campbell, Morgan Moses, Caleb Lomu), realistically leaving room for no more than two players. Based on the spring, Marcus Bryant projects as one of them, with Crownover possibly the next man in line.
Summary: The Patriots taking a late-round flier on Crownover is no surprise given his physique and potential. Ultimately, however, his roster fate will be decided by how quickly he can show some strides and challenge the Marcus Bryant for the projected fourth spot on the depth chart.
What do you think about Dametrious Crownover heading into the 2026 season? Will he earn one of the backup tackle spots? Or is he headed for the practice squad? Please head down to the comment section to share your thoughts.
