As it does every season, the injury bug has visited the New England Patriots. This time, its taken away their starting left tackle, Nate Solder.

According to a NESN.com post, the Boston Globe's Jim McBride has reported that the veteran tackle will miss the remainder of the season with a torn right biceps injury.

The injury news has broke just three days after Solder was removed from the Patriots' game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. In a second quarter play, Solder appeared to grab at his upper right arm and subsequently left the action. He did not return to the field in the second half and the team initially listed his injury as a right elbow injury.

Solder had come out in recent days and said that there was nothing wrong with his elbow, which led people to believe that he was held out of the second half for precautionary reasons, more than anything else.

While the news will surely put a bit of a chip into the New England offense, it shouldn't be as major a loss as it might be for other teams. the Patriots already employ an unorthodox style with their offensive line play, continually rotating players at a number of positions throughout each game. With that being said, the man most likely to replace Solder in the starting lineup, Marcus Cannon, has had plenty of game reps so far so he shouldn't be rusty when called upon.

Look for New England to add another tackle to the active roster within the next 24-48 hours, though, as they will now need somebody to fill Cannon's "floater" role. Guys like Cameron Fleming and Chris Barker could be internal options added from the team's practice squad to fill the gap, though they could look through free agency or the trade market to bring in a more prototypical tackle.

Also, it's worth noting that recently acquired Michael Williams, who has been used at the tight end position in New England, has experience playing tackle in the NFL as he entered the league at that position with the Detroit Lions, after playing tight end in college. The recent trade of fourth tight end Michael Hoomanawanui could put a halt to those thoughts, as that would shrink New England's tight end corps to just Rob Gronkowski and Scott Chandler.

With the Patriots, though, nothing is out of the question in terms of roster and game scheme.

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