Patriots In Familiar, Unenviable Spot With Upcoming Free Agents

There's this weird thing about the NFL that the New England Patriots are becoming quite familiar with.

You see, with the way the NFL and the NFLPA set up their collective bargaining agreement, every player selected outside of the first round of the NFL draft receives a contract of four years in length. There is no way to negotiate a different term, meaning one solid draft haul could result in one team having to commit a ton of dough over a short period of time to retain its home-grown talent.

Are you picking up what we're putting down?

The Patriots selected three impact players in the 2020 NFL Draft: Kyle Dugger, Josh Uche and Michael Onwenu. Given that set contract length we talked about, all three are due for relatively big pay days entering 2023.

We mentioned that New England had become familiar with this conundrum, having Dont'a Hightower, Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins all come up for contract extensions entering 2016. Patrick Chung, Sebastian Vollmer and Julian Edelman all reached free agency at the same time in 2013, as well. The unfortunate realization one might come too when remembering back is that the Patriots only retained half of those players. (Yes, Chung and Colling both returned but that doesn't fit our narrative.)

Hightower received the heftiest chunk of change, agreeing to a four-year, $35.5 million contract after playing out his rookie deal. Vollmer got a four-year deal of his own, worth a respectable $16.75 million. Edelman, the final player retained, got a modest one-year deal entering 2013, as he wasn't the player he would eventually become. Chung and Colling were both traded in 2016, while Chung cashed in with the Eagles in 2013.

If you're keeping track, the Patriots didn't extend a single player from that group, trading two before they could reach free agency and allowing the other four to test the waters.

Don't be surprised if they take the same approach with Dugger, Uche and Onwenu.

No, we don't think they're going to ship off three potential Pro Bowlers, it's just not in the Patriots' DNA to extend any of these players prior to their rookie deals ending. Dugger will be extremely important to the defense now that Devin McCourty is gone, but the safety market is delicate and New England surely isn't itching to reset it. Uche is coming off a tremendous season, but has precisely one of those under his belt and isn't going to get paid off of that alone. Onwenu -- well, he's a guard. The Patriots have paid guards in the past but they've also had no issue in moving on from star interior lineman in the past (Logan Mankins, Joe Thuney, Shaq Mason).

The Patriots could also see more of this in the near future, as Mac Jones, Christian Barmore, Rhamondre Stevenson, Cole Strange and Marcus Jones will all be up in a three-year window.

What's the point of all this, you ask? Well, we're not trying to ruin your excitement before training camp opens Wednesday, but the fact of the matter is this could be Dugger, Uche or Onwenu's last as a member of the Patriots. It could be their latest in a long line, too, but we all know that isn't likely.