The NFL Draft has come and gone and Joe Thuney is still a member of the Patriots.
Some believed he would have been traded last week since he's currently signed under the franchise tag, which has him counting $14.78 million towards the salary cap and the Patriots have only $1.077 million in salary cap space to work with.
Trading him would get all that money off the books and have the organization in a much better position relating to the cap.
It was a bit of a surprise the team even franchised him to begin with, but the hope may have been to buy more time to come to a long-term agreement. As of a few weeks ago, the two sides reportedly were not close to an extension. Extending Thuney would lower his cap hit, likely in half, so it would add about $7.5 million towards the Patriots' salary cap for 2020.
Appearing on The Greg Hill Show last week, ESPN's Adam Schefter rightly predicted Thuney would not be dealt during the draft.
"I don't see that. I'm not sure where that is coming from," he said. "First of all, when you're dealing a player like that, I know he's signed, but he has to take a physical, teams are going to have to have a big contract extension with him. We are not in a time in our country where I think teams, many teams, are all that enthralled with giving out big money extensions. There is a lot of uncertainty involving football.
"... "So, if you are trading for Joe Thuney, not only are you not giving him a physical, now you have to negotiate a contract, and even though he is a really good young player, I am just telling you, owners, some owners are being very, very careful right now, as they should. We have no idea if there is going to be a full schedule, a shortened schedule, fans, no fans, what form the sport will take. There's a lot of questions that offer a lot of uncertainty."
So, perhaps things will take longer to play out for the 27-year-old guard.
The deadline to sign franchise tag players to long-term deals is July 15 at 4 p.m, so the Patriots have until then to come to an agreement on an extension and then if that does not happen then maybe that is when they would look to trade him ahead of training camp. The hope would be physicals could be taken by then and there would be more clarity when it comes to the league's future.
While a lot of things are still on the table, one thing that doesn't seem likely to happen is for him to play out this season on his franchise tag since it counts for so much against the salary cap and it is only for one year.
