The Patriots spent the offseason reshaping the interior of their offensive line, and that squeeze is already making life tougher for the depth pieces. Alijah Vera-Tucker is set to start at left guard, Jared Wilson at center and Mike Onwenu at right guard, which leaves a crowded fight for whatever backup jobs remain.
Mehki Butler is right in the middle of that battle.
A second-year interior lineman, Butler enters camp with a clear lane to a reserve role but no real path to the starting lineup. He worked at left guard with New England’s second-string offensive line during spring practices, and that lines up with where he’s lived almost his entire football life.
Between Arkansas State and his lone preseason with the Patriots, 99.6% of his competitive snaps over the last five years came at left guard. The only other sliver came at right guard, and that was all in New England’s final exhibition game in 2025.
Butler’s background is built on patience and persistence. A state champion at Omaha North High School in Omaha, NE, he didn’t draw much attention coming out and began his college career at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. He played 12 games for the Reivers over two seasons and earned NJCAA first-team All-American honors in 2020.
After transferring to Arkansas State, Butler sat out in 2021 before becoming a fixture on the Red Wolves’ line. From 2022 through 2024, he started all 38 games at left guard and logged 2,554 offensive snaps. Even with that resume, he went unselected in the 2025 NFL Draft and landed with the Patriots as a rookie free agent.
His first year in New England was a mixed bag. Butler earned a three-year rookie deal after impressing at rookie minicamp, then got on the field in all three preseason games.
He played 52 offensive snaps, split between left and right guard, and allowed just one hurry in his debut while otherwise keeping a clean sheet in pass protection. That wasn’t enough to secure a roster spot, though.
He was released before the late-August cutdown, cleared waivers, and landed on the practice squad. His stay there was brief, as he was let go again before the Week 2 trip to Miami.
After spending three months on the open market, Butler got another look in early December when the Patriots brought him in for a workout and re-signed him to the practice squad. He finished the season there and later signed a reserve/futures contract after the Super Bowl.
From a scouting standpoint, Butler’s appeal starts with length. At 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds, he brings rare reach for an interior blocker, with arms that rank in the 94th percentile among interior offensive linemen entering the league since 1999 and a wingspan in the 92nd percentile.
He uses that well, showing decent hand placement, active hands and good timing with his punches. He mirrors well enough to use his reach to stall pass rushers and win early in reps, and he’s solid climbing to the next level in the run game.
He also gets off double teams quickly and can get upfield.
The flip side is just as clear. Butler’s athleticism doesn’t match his size and length, and that limits how much his physical tools can carry him.
He isn’t especially quick or nimble as a zone or pull blocker, and he can struggle to set a firm anchor in pass protection. If a defender gets into his chest and takes away his length, Butler can be walked back and lose leverage and balance.
That leaves him in a familiar spot heading into 2026: competing for depth, not a starting job. The Patriots are likely to keep no more than five interior offensive linemen on the 53-man roster, and four spots already look spoken for with Vera-Tucker, Wilson, Onwenu and Ben Brown. That puts Butler in a group with Caedan Wallace, Andrew Rupcich, Jacob Rizy and JonDarius Morgan for what may be only one opening.
The early read is not especially encouraging. Based on the open offseason practices, Butler appears to be fourth on the interior depth chart behind Ben Brown, Andrew Rupcich and Caedan Wallace.
His best-case path may be through continued technical growth, because his athletic ceiling is pretty ordinary and his rookie year included a practice-squad roller coaster. If he does stick, it likely comes as a reliable backup guard.
If not, the practice squad may be the most realistic landing spot again.
His contract is simple: a one-year futures deal worth a non-guaranteed $885,000 base salary, which also serves as his cap hit. Because that number is not large enough to count toward Top 51, he is not currently on New England’s books. He can also help on field goal and extra point protection units, which gives him another route to value as the roster math gets tight.
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