Report: The Patriots Key Opt Outs are All Coming Back

Dustin Bradford. Getty Images.

Bear with me here a minute, because trust me, this is going somewhere. One of the truly underrated movies of the last 20 years is "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." And there's a moment in there where they've been pursuing an enemy ship around Cape Horn, at the very southern tip of South America, and into the Pacific. It's probably the most treacherous waters in the world. All the officers are having dinner when the boat creeks in such a way that they all start cheering. And Paul Bettany's ship's doctor character, who's not an experienced seafarer (I won't say seaman. Grow up.), doesn't understand what's going on. So he says, "I imagine something terribly interesting and nautical just happened?" So they explain that the ship just came about and was finally heading north. "Back to the sun," the captain says. 

I mention it because the Patriots' ship of state that went south in 2020 might have just made it's first turn back toward the sun. 

As a reminder, in case I haven't whined about this enough already, the Patriots led the league in Covid opt outs, with eight. In addition to two key starters in the middle of the defense and one on defense (in 2019, Dont'a Hightower was fifth on the defense in snaps with 785, Pat Chung was was ninth with 654, and Marcus Cannon was fifth on the entire roster with 1,069), they lost core-4 special teamer Brandon Bolden, presumptive fullback Dan Vitale, and three depth guys. And while I won't discount what Bolden and Vitale might have contributed, obviously the losses of Hightower, Chung and Cannon left gaping holes that were only filled with semi-mixed results. 

In 2019, Hightower led the Pats in tackles. Chung was tied for sixth, despite missing two games. That's a lot of production gone from the direct center of your defense. So it should be to the surprise of no one that, according to Pro Football Focus, the unit went from the fifth highest tackling grade and middle of the pack against the run two seasons ago to 22nd against the run last year. 

Cannon is a different story. He's among the best run blocking right tackles in the league, but the Pats' offense was infinitely more of a run-based attack without him thanks to the switch at quarterback and simple necessity. Besides, Michael Onwenu was a revelation filling in for him. In fact, he was one of the best rookies in the league, if not one of the best RTs of any age. But Onwenu is a natural interior lineman who happen to slide outside out of desperation, and performed beyond anyone's expectations. With Cannon now back, they could afford to lose Joe Thuney or David Andrews to free agency (Note: Do NOT lose Thuney or Andrews to free agency) because they've found a young, exceptionally reliable replacement who can plug in for the next 10 years. 

So this is a reason to celebrate, to say the very least. There has been tons of speculation that one or all of these guys would simply retire. Of the three, Hightower is the baby at almost 31. Cannon has survived Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. All three have missed time with injuries. But now with their return, it takes an enormous weight off members of the 2020 rookie class like Onwenu, Kyle Dugger and Anfernee Jennings. Each of whom were pressed into duty sooner than expected with battlefield promotions thanks to the opt outs of these three players. 

And with any luck, we'll look back at today and realize, as one executive said back in July when all these guys exercised their Covid options, that it was all part of Belichick's master plan.