Not so sure about that premise. It will always be hard to be a tackle for Pat just cause of how he likes to move around and manipulate the D. While it's awesome it is hard on your tackles. You could be doing great, but now he's not where you expect him to be, which can lead to holds if you're not careful.
By any metric we like, I think we can all agree that last years offense sucked in the regular season. Most of the issues can be traced to the receivers though. Inability to separate, drops, not making good sight adjustments, etc... the list was long.
The tackles were average but Pat has shown he can make that work. Reminder, the year before we led the league in offense with average tackle play. Same the year before that. The difference was the receiving corps.
Add to that it is 1000% easier to find a legit wr than a legit tackle, just due to supply and demand, and I think a vet receiver might make a bigger difference to the offense.
All that said I'd wait and let the young guys get all the reps and to get more clarity on Rice's situation.