Today in Patriots History
Shaq Mason
Happy 33rd birthday to Shaq Mason
Born Aug 28, 1993 in Columbia, Tennessee
Patriots guard, 2015-2021; uniform #69
Pats 4th round (131st overall) selection of the 2015 draft, from Georgia Tech
Pats résumé: seven seasons, 103 (98 starts); 13 postseason starts, two Super Bowl rings
Shaquille Olajuwon Mason
(yes, he was named after the two basketball players) was the starter in three straight Super Bowls, earning rings from Super Bowl 51 against Atlanta and Super Bowl 53 versus the Rams. In each of his first four seasons the Pats ranked in the top-ten in total offense. Mason started ten regular season games at left guard for the Patriots in his rookie season, before moving to right guard for the team's two playoff games. He then settled in as New England's right guard for the next six years.
The Pats had a choice to make when Mason and
Trey Flowers were both approaching the end of their rookie contracts. The team gave Mason a five year contract with $23.5 million in bonuses and guarantees, letting Flowers depart in free agency for Detroit.
After seven seasons in New England, the Pats traded Mason to Tampa Bay, eleven days prior to the 2022 draft. He played one season with the Bucs, then finished his career with two years playing for the Houston Texans. Both of those destinations were Pats-related: 2022 was
Tom Brady's final season with the Bucs, and
Nick Caserio is the GM in Houston. At age 31 Mason still appeared to be going strong; he didn't miss a single snap in 2023, and started 15 games in 2024. He was released early in the 2025 offseason, finishing his career with a total of 169 regular season and postseason games played.
Back to that 2022 draft, when he was traded away. In the first round,
Bill Belichick selected another guard to replace Mason:
Cole Strange.
Shaq Mason played in 103 regular season games for the Patriots, with 98 starts - with the Patriots going 73-30 in the games he played. He also played in 13 postseason games for New England, with the Patriots going 9-4, including two super bowl victories.
August 27, 2018:
The Patriots and starting right guard Shaq Mason have agreed to a five-year contract extension worth up to $50 million, a league source confirms.
www.espn.com
The New England Patriots and starting right guard Shaq Mason have agreed to a five-year contract extension worth up to $50 million, a league source confirmed.
Mason, a 2015 fourth-round draft choice out of Georgia Tech, will receive $23.5 million in bonuses and guarantees as part of the deal. That total includes the $1.9 million base salary he was scheduled to earn in 2018.
Feb 27, 2019:
The New England Patriots offensive line played very well during the 2018 regular season and throughout their run to Super Bowl LIII, and guard Shaq Mason was a huge reason for that success. Mason was Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded guard of the 2018 campaign, besting all of his peers across...
www.nbcsports.com
The New England Patriots offensive line played very well during the 2018 regular season and throughout their run to Super Bowl LIII, and guard Shaq Mason was a huge reason for that success.
Mason was Pro Football Focus' highest-graded guard of the 2018 campaign, besting all of his peers across the NFL with an 82.7 overall grade.
The Patriots offensive line was
PFF's fourth-highest graded unit for the regular season, and the group improved its performance in the playoffs by allowing only one sack of quarterback Tom Brady through three postseason games. New England's offensive line also played a leading role in the team crushing opponents on the ground with 485 rushing yards in the playoffs.
The whole league passed on Mason in the 2015 NFL Draft before the Patriots finally selected the Georgia Tech product in the fourth round (131st overall). The Patriots also picked defensive end Trey Flowers in the fourth round of that draft, helping make the 2015 class one of the team's best in recent years.
Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine
It’s become a cliché that most students, let alone student-athletes, prefer to sit in the back of the classroom, far from the lecturer’s monitoring gaze. But not Shaq Mason. Tech professors remember the 300-pound All-American offensive lineman sitting front-row and center, at full attention during their classes. It makes sense when you consider that Mason’s job on the gridiron is to be on the front lines, blowing holes in the defense for running backs and protecting the quarterback. Mason started 39 of 41 games for the Yellow Jackets in his last three years (2012–2014), including every game his junior and senior years, earning first-team All-ACC in 2013 and 2014 and first-team All-American in 2014. He was drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2015 NFL Draft to help guard future Hall-of-Famer Tom Brady en route to three Super Bowls. Mason works for more than just the glory and recognition. During the summer before his senior year at Tech, his girlfriend gave birth to a baby girl, Kamrie. From that moment on, Mason had the only reason he needed to show up for work every day.
2015: 18-Page Slide Show of Mason at Georgia Tech - Patriots.com:
Check out our favorite photos of Patriots fourth round pick (131st overall) Shaq Mason, a Guard out of Georgia Tech.
www.patriots.com
March 18, 2022:
Answering reader questions every Friday morning.
www.masslive.com
Why did they give up Shaq Mason for a 5th rounder? He is viewed as one of the better guards. Why couldn’t they get a 3rd or even a 4th for him? It seems like a poor return
That’s absolutely a fair question.
Mason was playing at a Pro Bowl caliber level last season — he’s still one of the best run-blockers in the NFL — and his contract wasn’t an albatross. For comparison’s sake, Amari Cooper was also traded to the Browns for a fifth-round pick but his money was awful ($20 million cap hit for the next three years).
In Mason’s case, the Patriots saved $7 million in cap space, put $3 million in dead money on their books, and got appreciably worse in the process. It’s not an exaggeration to say the guard was safely one of the Top 5 players on the roster in 2021. With Ted Karras already gone in free agency, the offensive line has become a concern when it wasn’t before.
Interestingly, it’s been a few years since the Patriots have received even a Day 2 pick via trade, and they’ve seen some noteworthy names go out the door.
Along with Mason (5th), there’s been Stephon Gilmore (6th), Sony Michel (4th, 6th), Rob Gronkowski (4th), Duron Harmon (5th) and Demaryius Thomas (6th). The last Patriot to garner better than a Day 3 return was Brandin Cooks (1st, 6th with N.E. throwing in a 4th) back in 2018.
It certainly seems like they could have gotten more for Mason (or simply kept him).
March 18, 2022 - Bucs team website:
The Buccaneers have sent their fifth-round pick in the 2022 draft to New England in exchange for guard Shaq Mason, pending a physical...Mason has started 111 games for the Patriots over the past seven seasons
www.buccaneers.com
March 15, 2022:
plugged in all my pluses and minuses for each player for each game and then totaled them up, and divided them by games with meaningful snaps to arrive at a Net Rating for each player. It caused me to look at some players in a different light, namely Nelson Agholor and Shaq Mason — both for...
www.bostonsportsjournal.com
On the flip side, there's Mason, who only rated above Isaiah Wynn among regular starters on the team. That's a tough look for a player with the seventh-highest cap number going into this season. Could that color the team the other way and have them possibly looking to move Mason for a net cap savings?
In Mason's defense, if you can call it that, it really was a tale of two seasons for the right guard. In his first nine games, he was a minus-23 (-2.55 net). In the final seven games, Mason was dramatically better at minus-4 (-0.57). If Mason played like that the entire season, he easily would have been the best lineman on the team. The question for the Patriots is, which Mason are you confident in getting for the final two years of his contract? If it's the late-season Mason, he's definitely worth his contract. If it's the other guy ... it might be time to move on. . . .
But the bottom line is, Mason did not have a strong first half of the season, and the Patriots rightfully questioned his future.
What will the Patriots do on the line, now that Ted Karras and Mason are gone ... this is how I see the depth chart:
May 31, 2022:
The Patriots' lack of offensive line depth has become a center of controversy since free agency.
www.si.com
Former New England Patriots offensive lineman Shaq Mason was a keystone in one of the best offensive lines in Patriots history. After being drafted by New England in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft, the young star quickly become one of the league's most consistent run blockers.
Yet, with the Patriots' cap woes entering the 2022 offseason, head coach and general manager Bill Belichick was forced to trade Mason to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a mere sixth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Perhaps even more infuriating than the return for the perennial top-five guard was the fact that Belichick immediately drafted Cole Strange, the lesser-known Chattanooga prospect, in the first round as a replacement for Mason.
Says ESPN:
The Pats' hands were tied by what they did last offseason, but I would have liked to see them find a way to keep Mason. Even if New England thinks Strange will emerge as a superstar, retaining Mason would have allowed the team to keep Mike Onwenu in a utility role, which is extremely important given how frequently Brown and fellow tackle Isaiah Wynn have been injured over the past few seasons.
Since the team's improbable 2018 Super Bowl-winning effort, the team's offensive line has been critical to the offense's identity. With the loss of a player as important to the team as Mason, New England will hope that their young talent can grow to fill the gap.
Checkout the most complete stats available online for Shaq Mason. Get info about his position, height, weight, college, transactions and more at Pro Football Archives.
www.profootballarchives.com
