The New England Patriots round out the NFL\u2019s top 10 in available cap space in 2026. The defending AFC champions currently have more than $35 million to work with, and that is before the expected parting of ways with their second-most-expensive player, Stefon Diggs.<\/p>\n
However, there are more savings to be found in the team\u2019s 2026 payroll. Their third-most-expensive player, and highest-paid offensive lineman (by a long shot), Mike Onwenu, is entering a contract year.<\/p>\n
Onwenu is set to make $25.5 million next season, eating up more than 8% of the team\u2019s cap all on his own. <\/p>\n
Onwenu finished last season with a top-five run blocking grade on Pro Football Focus and a top-10 overall grade at right guard. This makes maintaining one of the few veterans in the offensive line room a no-brainer.<\/p>\n
But if New England goes about the contract negotiations the right way, they can save $10 million in cap space next season as they chase another Super Bowl appearance. <\/p>\n
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Onwenu\u2019s last deal was a three-year, $57 million free agent contract with an increasing cap hit each season. His new contract will likely be similar, with many estimates coming in the three-year, $60 million range.<\/p>\n
An extension would allow for his current massive salary hit to be reworked into a bonus proration that could be spread over his remaining four years. Bonuses become essentially guarantees, making them very attractive to the negotiating player. <\/p>\n
And for New England\u2019s front office, it softens the blow of his massive cap hit in 2026. Instead of a more than $10 million instant payout next year, the new contract would chip away at that number by adding about $3 million per season.<\/p>\n
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Extending Onwenu early is a slam dunk move that locks up one of the team\u2019s strongest offensive line pieces in the prime of his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots round out the NFL\u2019s top 10 in available cap space in 2026. The defending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,7883,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-750640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mike-onwenu","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116066758721632522","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}