{"id":31568,"date":"2020-07-28T08:20:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/?p=31568"},"modified":"2020-07-28T08:20:12","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:20:12","slug":"donta-hightower-opts-out-for-the-2020-nfl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2020\/07\/28\/donta-hightower-opts-out-for-the-2020-nfl-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Dont\u2019a Hightower Opts Out for the 2020 NFL Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ouch&#8230;the Patriots got even worse news for the 2020 NFL season when they learned that LB Dont\u2019a Hightower, one of the most important members of the Patriots defense has decided to opt-out of the upcoming season. He joins FB Danny Vitale, OL Marcus Cannon, and OL Najee Toran who opted out yesterday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter was first to report this latest development as the league and players are struggling to find the safest way to protect the players and their families. Hightower\u2019s wife gave birth to their first child on July 16.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the departures, this spring of Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins at the linebacker position, the Patriots in 2020 were in the position of relying on the veteran presence of Hightower even more. This is a big blow for the defense as Hightower normally calls all of the defensive signals in the huddle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bill Belichick has referred to Hightower as \u201cMr. February\u201d alluding to the linebacker\u2019s penchant for making huge plays at key points in big games, frequently in the Super Bowl.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10708\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10708\" class=\"wp-image-10708\" src=\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Goal-line-Hightower-1024x537.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Goal-line-Hightower-1024x537.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Goal-line-Hightower-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Goal-line-Hightower-1536x805.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Goal-line-Hightower-2048x1073.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-10708\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hightower is one of the most important Patriots defenders. (SBalestrieri photo)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hightower was in the final year of his contract that was to pay him $8 million this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the others who opted out was FB Danny Vitale who was supposed to soften the blow of the retirement of James Develin this spring. Vitale is a smaller but more athletic player who had intriguing possibilities in the Patriots offense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marcus Cannon, the Patriots starting right tackle also opted out. We heard back in January that he wasn\u2019t returning, possibly opting for retirement as he moved his family back to Texas in the offseason, but perhaps the lure of his big contract made him pause. But he too decided to opt-out of the season. That leaves a big hole in the offensive line where the team has question marks as to who replaces him. They may shop for a veteran now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toran was expected to compete for a backup role on the inside of the offensive line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ouch&#8230;the Patriots got even worse news for the 2020 NFL season when they learned that LB Dont\u2019a Hightower, one of the most important members of the Patriots defense has decided to opt-out of the upcoming season. He joins FB Danny Vitale, OL Marcus Cannon, and OL Najee Toran who opted out yesterday.\u00a0 ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":19327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22020,2216,22128,1198,1519,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-patriots-53-man-roster-projection","category-2020-patriots-offseason","category-2020-patriots-training-camp","category-nfl-commentary","category-nfl-news","category-patriots-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium 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