After shipping Brayan Ceballos off to CF Montreal, the New England Revolution seemed an injury away from having a massive hole at center back. At the conclusion of the 2026 Summer Transfer Window, the position is arguably New England's strongest in terms of depth.

The Revolution acquired Tylon Smith and Joshua Wynder. Both players are young defenders who could potentially play a large role depending on their development.

Marko Mitrovic was quick to say that Smith is a young player and still needs to develop. It was a slightly different tone when he spoke about Wynder after his acquisition was officially announced on Thursday.

“Regarding Josh [Wynder], he’s another player that I can say I worked with and have known for a long time," Mitrovic said. "Josh is someone who has a very high ceiling. He had a move to Europe at an early stage of his career. I think he gained great experience in the last couple of years in Portugal. He was part of our processes with U.S. Soccer. Josh is someone that we strongly believe is a great fit in terms of culture and how we want to play because he’s a great person. He has great charisma, great energy about him, and he has a great ceiling.”

Chief soccer officer Chris Tierney noted that the club has been tracking Wynder for some time. Considering the connection to Mitrovic, it is a move that made a lot of sense.

“Marko [Mitrović] and I have had conversations about Josh's abilities since Marko took the job," Tierney said. "He's obviously had experience working with him up close. He’s a very high-potential player who made a move early from the USL to Benfica, has featured a number of times for Benfica B, and was kind of in the mix to start getting minutes with the first team, but I think it was the right time for him to take on a project where he can take his development to the next level. So, we're excited to provide that opportunity for him here. We expect him to be a key contributor for us, and we're excited to start working with him.”

With the acquisition, New England at the minimum has coverage for Ethan Kohler and Mamadou Fofana. The Malian has been a top defender in all of Major League Soccer and Kohler was performing well enough that New England felt comfortable moving on from Ceballos.

After the move, Kohler has continued to perform at a high-level. He has great athleticism and is comfortable on the ball.

“It’s always great to have a great competition," Mitrovic said. "When you have good players around, then it’s to the coaches to figure out who and how we’re going to play. When Josh comes here, we’ll have to learn how he’s going to interact with this group. Every player, no matter how much I know about Josh, when you come into a different environment, you bring in a different dynamic. But I think this is a good thing to have because the older guys [on the roster as central defenders] that we already have here, we’re very pleased with all of them.

Tylon [Smith] has only been here for a few weeks but if we connect with the previous question where we spoke about culture, he’s a really great fit. He’s a hard-working, very coachable player. We like his personality as well. He came into our locker room like he’s been there for a long time. What we have to do is just to show to all of them that we care about all of them, knowing that probably two or maybe three of them will play sometimes, depending on what positions we can use and utilize those players. But they have to feel a sense of belonging to our locker room. For me, that’s the biggest task that as a [coaching] staff we have to do.”

Having depth is always a good problem. When a coach has to make some tough decisions to select a starting XI, it means you constructed a good roster.

Tierney noted that this is a concerted effort from the club. By bringing in players that promote competition for minutes, the CSO believes it improves the overall quality of the squad.

"Our thinking in bringing these players in is that we want to provide competition in all positions on the field," Tierney said. "The more quality you have amongst the center back group from one to five, the better it's going to be for the health of the team overall. We play a relatively congested schedule in the second half [of the season] here. We have a bunch of midweek games coming up, so I'm sure there's going to be opportunities for everyone to contribute. So, when the squad has to be rotated because of the demands of the schedule, we feel like we're in a good spot to have quality come in and replace those players that are starting at the time. Basically, the idea is more competition in the squad raises the overall quality. That's what we're trying to do in the window, and we felt like we've done that."

Beyond arriving in New England, Wynder will have to build his fitness. The center back hasn't played a competitive match since February according to SofaScore.

But Wynder was paired with Kohler at the U-20 World Cup. It will be interesting to see how the former Lou City defender develops and if he could potentially command a chance to start.

Coaches always have "their players". It was seen a lot under Bruce Arena as the head coach brought in former USMNT players. Now, with Mitrovic, it has been about bringing in U.S. Youth National Team players.

While not every player has earned a starting role, Brooklyn Raines appears to have his name written in pen in the starting XI. Kohler is in a similar spot.

Wynder could become the next player to have his career revitalized thanks to Mitrovic, but if he wants to become a starter, it won't be easy.