The New England Patriots and starting right guard Mike Onwenu have reached an agreement to rework his contract for the 2026 season. As a consequence, the team gained $7.5 million in cap space.
Onwenu, 28, is entering the final season of the three-year, $57 million extension he signed with the franchise back in 2024. Under the original terms of the deal, he was due to play on a $16 million salary and set to count $25 million against the Patriots’ books.
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Both of the numbers have now been reduced, as first reported by salary cap expert Miguel Benzan.
Onwenu took a $7.5 million pay cut under what is effectively a new one-year, $10 million deal. He is still slated to become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
His salary was brought down to $2.95 million while a $6 million signing bonus was added. While both of those numbers are now guaranteed, as is his existing $7.5 million signing bonus proration from 2024, the restructure lowered his cap hit by those aforementioned $7.5 million down to $17.5 million.
Instead of being the second most-expensive interior offensive lineman in football this season based on cap impact, Onwenu now sits at No. 9 in a league-wide comparison.
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A sixth-round draft pick by the Patriots out of the University of Michigan in 2020, Onwenu saw extensive action from his rookie season on. In total, he has appeared in 103 combined regular season and playoff games for the club, including 94 as a starter. Last season, the 6-foot-3, 350-pound guard started all 21 of New England’s games and led the team with 1,346 offensive snaps, resulting in a 99.1% playing time share.
As of Friday morning, the Patriots have $42.5 million in salary cap space, according to Benzan.
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