Joe Thuney, Patriots Fail to Reach Extension: What Next?

When the Patriots and Joe Thuney failed to reach a contract extension ahead of Wednesday’s franchise tag deadline, the team’s future at offensive line got significantly more cloudy.

New England’s starting left guard will play for $14.78 million in 2020, making him the second-highest paid player on the team and second-highest paid guard in the entire NFL. Thuney and the Patriots will have a chance to restart extension talks at season’s end, but according to NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran, he could be looking for a deal that pays him roughly $14 million annually.

The chances Thuney gets that money in New England are far from certain, and the Patriots may have to reevaluate their offensive line moving forward.

Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon and Isaiah Wynn are all under contract in 2021, combining for a $20.81 million cap hit between the three of them. Adding in Hjalte Froholdt, Yodny Cajuste, Korey Cunningham, Mike Onwenu, Justin Herron and Dustin Woodard, the offensive line’s total cap hit for 2021 goes up to $26.14 million – albeit with mostly unguaranteed money for those six.

That is with both Thuney and starting center David Andrews coming off the books next year, which means the Patriots may have to shift things around in order to solidify a reliable five-man unit at a decent price in 2021.

New England’s offensive linemen accounted for $19.17 million against the cap in 2019. With the cap potentially going down due to coronavirus-related league-wide losses, it would not make a lot of financial sense for the Patriots to double their offensive line’s cost in a two-year span and commit over $45 million to the position by retaining Thuney and Andrews.

The reality is that Bill Belichick, now without longtime offensive line guru Dante Scarnecchia, will have to move on from one or both of the interior duo come next offseason.

Should Thuney leave via free agency, the Patriots would likely receive a third-round compensatory pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Belichick could always look to trade the two-time Super Bowl champion guard, especially if he wants to get a more relevant trade chip than a mid-round pick two years down the line.

Six years ago, the Patriots traded then-six-time Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for tight end Tim Wright – who was coming off of a 54-catch, 571-yard rookie season – and a fourth-round pick in the following draft. But given Mankins was 32-years-old at the time of that trade and Thuney is 27 today, the Patriots may be able to get a slightly better return should they decide to deal him before the trade deadline in October.

For Thuney, a trade may give him more security for a long-term, big-money extension down the line.

The Patriots traded Jamie Collins to the Cleveland Browns for a third-round pick in 2016, and Collins wound up getting a four-year, $50 million contract the following offseason. Brandin Cooks was shipped from New England to the Los Angeles Rams following the 2018 season, and he secured a five-year, $80 million extension just three months later.

A trade could be beneficial for both sides in the long run, with New England maximizing their return and Thuney maximizing the money he can get in his next contract.

One bump in the road, however, could be the rumors that the New York Jets were interested in Thuney – a potential reason Belichick kept him off the market, according to NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal. The interest in a highly-priced guard could be slim, and if the Jets are the only team calling, Belichick would do his best to avoid trading Thuney to a division rival.

Ditching Thuney – who has started every one of the Patriots’ last 64 games dating back to 2016 – for draft capital would also weaken their offensive line in 2020, but there are options to fill his void with stopgap pieces in the short term. Former New Orleans Saints guard Larry Warford is fresh off three consecutive Pro Bowl seasons and is on the free agent market, while 30-year old tackle Cordy Glenn is out there as well – a signing which would likely move Wynn to left guard as a result.

Rearranging an offensive line a month and a half before the season is never ideal, especially when the team has added a new, injury-prone quarterback in Cam Newton.

But with no extension in place, it’s time both sides start preparing for a split sooner rather than later.

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