Free agency giveth and it taketh away, and although the New England Patriots 2021 version has brought mostly the former, the team did lose a valuable starter in form of starting left guard Joe Thuney.
Despite the fact that the Patriots are losing a player many viewed as the team’s best offensive lineman, it is hard to criticize the choice that New England’s front office made in steering clear of the 5-year, $80 million-mark that would ultimately secure Thuney’s services for the AFC rival Kansas City Chiefs.
The team fired one of the first salvos of the league’s new year by way of a trade with the Oakland Raiders that brought tackle Trent Brown back to Foxboro, a move that could seemingly allow Michael Onwenu, a gem of a sixth round selection in last year’s NFL Draft, to claim the opening created by Thuney’s departure from New England.
Might the Patriots turn to the 2021 NFL Draft for Thuney’s replacement?
In choosing not to allocate such a substantial swath of the team’s finite salary cap dollars to the soon-to-be 30-year-old Thuney, Belichick and company may have also cleared a path for the Pats to address the team’s interior offensive line in the 2021 NFL Draft.
With one selection in each of the draft’s first three rounds, New England is scheduled to make 10 total selections in month’s proceedings. In examining potential replacements among this year’s class of incoming guard prospects, we will turn our attention to New England’s second and early third-day picks, beginning with the team’s fourth round selection.