Onwenu Takes Paycut for 2026

Wozzy · May 30, 2026

rkarp1 said:
rather than dancing, answer the question

how in any way imaginable can Onwenu make $19m this season?
how in any way imaginable did he not take a pay cut?

He didn’t make 19M in 2024, he made 24M.

Again… you haven’t seen the details of this contract. You have no clue what incentive are tied up in it.

I never said he didn’t take a pay cut, I said he didn’t take the pay cut you said he did. i also said his contract had zero guarantees left on it, they could have cut him outright and paid him nothing. Or they could have traded him to a horrible team considering they still owned his rights.

This has nothing to do with the cap being crap and everything to do with the last year being a bookkeeping year.

upstater1 · May 30, 2026

RxJock1120 said:
Good point, let's overpay for average guards...
He may have been averaging $17m a year, but that is not what he was being paid in his final year, this year. It is not what his cap hit was this year...

???

What are you even talking about?

My response had nothing to do what with what he's getting paid this year. I think it's smart, and he knows it too because if he was cut, teams wouldn't have the cash to pay him as much.

But you're wrong if you believe he's not going to make $17m in the free agent market next year a( if he plays as well as he played last year).

Are you not aware that we paid a broken, often injured guard in Vera-Tucker $14.5m? That's the market.

mgteich · May 30, 2026

Onwenu and the team agreed that he wasn't worth $17.5M on the open market. They agreed on $10M. Perhaps someone else MIGHT have offered a bit more. There are lots of reason for Onwenu to accept the cut.

1) He likes the familiarity with the patriot Offense and with the patriots.
2) He wants to retire a patriot.
3) He wants a chance to increase his value before his goes to free agency after the season. Of course, the patriots might be in the bidding. In any case, he probably has a better chance to increase his value here than on a new team.

But make no mistake. Onwenu's contract called for him to be paid $17.5M and he will be paid $10M

Wozzy · May 30, 2026

mgteich said:
Onwenu and the team agreed that he wasn't worth $17.5M on the open market. They agreed on $10M. Perhaps someone else MIGHT have offered a bit more. There are lots of reason for Onwenu to accept the cut.

1) He likes the familiarity with the patriot Offense and with the patriots.
2) He wants to retire a patriot.
3) He wants a chance to increase his value before his goes to free agency after the season. Of course, the patriots might be in the bidding. In any case, he probably has a better chance to increase his value here than on a new team.

But make no mistake. Onwenu's contract called for him to be paid $17.5M and he will be paid $10M

Wait for the details of the contract to come out.

When the Patriots did a similar reworking on Judon’s contract in 2023 the restructured deal allowed him to earn up to $4 million more through incentives. Those were easy to hit incentives based mostly on snaps and availability.

We have no clue what the details of the contract are.

p8ryts · May 30, 2026

Wozzy said:
Wait for the details of the contract to come out.

When the Patriots did a similar reworking on Judon’s contract in 2023 the restructured deal allowed him to earn up to $4 million more through incentives. Those were easy to hit incentives based mostly on snaps and availability.

We have no clue what the details of the contract are.

He had no guaranteed money, resigning gave him 10 M guaranteed. That's how I understood it.

Wozzy · May 30, 2026

p8ryts said:
He had no guaranteed money, resigning gave him 10 M guaranteed. That's how I understood it.

Agreed.

Hyped · May 30, 2026

Triumph said:
No Moses?

Campbell - Tucker - Wilson - Onwenu - Moses

I’d like to see Lomu supplant Moses this year though …same with Wilson over Bradbury.

Hyped · May 30, 2026

DaBruinz said:
Moses is the starting RT. Lomu isn't taking that unless Moses goes down with injury.

Moses has 4.5M in guarantees this year. So he's unlikely to be cut.

Lomu looks pretty good to me though. I am OK with Moses as a swing tackle if Lomu proves to be the real thing.

mgteich · May 30, 2026

Hyped said:
Lomu looks pretty good to me though. I am OK with Moses as a swing tackle if Lomu proves to be the real thing.

If Lomu can beat out Moses this year, then I would expect Moses to the backup RT.

If Campbell is out. I would expect Lomu to move to LT and Moses to step in at RT,

This is much, much stronger than expecting Moses to play LT, where he has very rarely played.

We hopefully have six starter level players and one experienced backup (Brown). We will see how far Lomu can come.

The battle for the other 1-3 backups will be very fierce and, for most, doesn't matter much.

Brady85-23 · May 30, 2026

Do you give gonzo 35 a year?
Right now the #1 corner is making 31 a year

Huckleberry1 · May 30, 2026

I would give Gonzalez a top 3 CB contract. If he wants more than that he will be waiting for year 6 to get paid. The Patriots should make it clear that he won't get more than the current top 3 by waiting another year, and that they will franchise him if he plays out the 5 years. At a certain point you have to play hardball.

BobDigital · May 30, 2026

mayoclinic said:
The cap is over $300M, and will keep going up. $15-20M AAV is now a mid-level contract.

The reality right now is that top QBs get around $55M AAV, top WRs and EDGE players $40M, CBs > $30M. OTs have not yet broken the $30M AAV barrier, maxxing out around $28M. I expect that to change soon. Tristan Wirfs, Penei Sewell and the likes are relative bargains.

Onwenu's $19M AAV was a massive overpay in 2024, far less so today. As of right now:

Tyler Linderbaum: 3/$81M, $27 AAV
Tyler Smith: 4/$96M, $24 AAV
Trey Smith: 4/$94M, $23.5 AAV
Chris Lindstrom: 5/$102.5M, $20.5 AAV
Quenton Nelson: 4/$80M, $20 AAV
Robert Hunt: 5/$100M, $20 AAV
Aaron Banks: 4/$77M, $19.25 AAV
Sam Cosmi: 4/$74M, $18.5 AAV
Quinn Meinerz: 4/$72M, $18 AAV
Creed Humphrey: 4/$72M, $18 AAV
Joe Thuney: 2/$35M, $17.5 AAV
Will Fries: 5/$87.5, $17.5 AAV
AVT: 3/$42M, $14M AAV

AVT is a massive bargain if he works well, his contract allows an easy out if he doesn't. Just over half of Tyler Linderbaum's deal.

Obviously this is very crude and the details matter, but it gives some idea of the IOL direction.

I expect Peter Skoronski ($19M 5th year option for 2027) to get upwards for 4/$100M. He could possibly become the first $30M AAV IOL. By that time the cap will probably be upwards of $350M. After Jeffery Simmons, he is the best player currently on Tennessee 's roster.

I expect Aaron Brewer to get $24M AAV or more when he gets a new deal.

The Pats have Will Campbell, Caleb Lomu (once signed), Jared Wilson and AVT under low cost. They will have an above-average OL at below-average cost.

This is a big reason why i am all for drafting WRs in the first round. They are overpaid in the market, the best thing you can do for your team is find value with drafted players. If you get a cheap WR room that produces for your offense and a reasonably priced QB your it is rather easy to build a top 10 OL through free agency with plenty of cash to spare.

It is kind of surprising only 1 OT makes over 30M/year and just barely. Perhaps part of the reason is teams have gotten better at interior pressure. I think the past the pass rush use to come much more from the edge in Defensive lines with the interior focused on run stopping. Now seems much more mixed and this has caused the valued between IOL and OT to reach closer to parody. That is more of a guess though, i don't have good data to back it up.

RxJock1120 · May 30, 2026

upstater1 said:
???

What are you even talking about?

My response had nothing to do what with what he's getting paid this year. I think it's smart, and he knows it too because if he was cut, teams wouldn't have the cash to pay him as much.

But you're wrong if you believe he's not going to make $17m in the free agent market next year a( if he plays as well as he played last year).

Are you not aware that we paid a broken, often injured guard in Vera-Tucker $14.5m? That's the market.

We paid a guy who plays at a pro-bowl level 14.5 mil a year. Now he gets injured A LOT, but we put in clauses in his contract in case those injuries continue, so if he doesn't play much for the Pats, he will be lucky to see half of that 14.5/year.

Back to your point, Onwenu won't make above 10/year in free agency. And even that may be a generous projection.

mrbean · May 30, 2026

At $10m a year, I’d happily extend him for 3 years.

mgteich · May 30, 2026

mrbean said:
At $10m a year, I’d happily extend him for 3 years.

That's all we are paying him to play this year.

If he plays well, he could worth even more to the patriots than $10 AAV.

mrbean · May 30, 2026

I know. When he agreed to take $10m, I’d would have offered 3@30, lol.

mgteich · May 30, 2026

mrbean said:
I know. When he agreed to take $10m, I’d would have offered 3@30, lol.

Of course.

Onwenu may have been offered 3/$30M. That offer would likely be less attractive to him.

DaBruinz · May 30, 2026

rkarp1 said:
huh?

his base on the prior contract was $16m. no incentives.

Incorrect. there were incentives in his prior contract. Including Game Day roster bonus.

rkarp1 said:
his base now is $2.8m and he got $6m to sign. no incentives

His new base is $2.95M. He got $6M signing bonus. He's guaranteed $10M this season.

I spelled it out for your dumb ass earlier. Try paying attention.

DaBruinz · May 30, 2026

rkarp1 said:
you have no clue what AAV means, do you?
AAV is the average through the life of his deal. his AAV does not change year to year, unless he resturctures.

please stop talking about finances
you are embarrassing yourself

What was the AAV of Onwenu's contract before it was restructured? It was 19M.
After the restructure, it's 16.5M. How is that you say? Because the $10M he's getting paid for this year is part of the $57M contract he got. You take 7.5 from 57 and you get what? 49.5M. Divide 49.5/3 and you get 16.5.

Congrats on showing yourself to be an imbecile, @rkarp1. YOU are the one who should stop talking about finances because you're the one embarrassing yourself.

DaBruinz · May 30, 2026

RxJock1120 said:
Good point, let's overpay for average guards...
He may have been averaging $17m a year, but that is not what he was being paid in his final year, this year. It is not what his cap hit was this year...

You aren't paying attention to what Guard salaries are now, are you. Just like you don't understand that people are using tangible stats to rate players. Not some fictional grade posted on a website.

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