New England Patriots: 3 players who need their contracts reworked in 2022
New England Patriots restructure candidate No. 3: Davon Godchaux
Davon Godchaux was arguably the most underrated free agency signing from last offseason for the Patriots. He paired up with fellow interior lineman Lawrence Guy to form a solid run stopping duo, and it resulted in the best season of Godchaux’s career to this point. He finished the season with 65 tackles, one sack, five QB hits, two tackles for loss, and a forced fumble while regularly drawing a large portion of the offensive line’s attention.
Despite the positive season, it’s clear the Patriots have to do something about Godchaux’s contract. Godchaux signed a two year, $15 million deal last offseason, but much of the cash was pushed back to the second year of his deal. So after having a cap hit just a tad over $4 million last season, Godchaux’s cap hit for the upcoming season is set to be $10.25 million.
Godchaux is a good player, but he’s not worth taking a $10 million cap hit for, and something is going to be done with his deal one way or another. Releasing Godchaux outright would save $5 million in cap space, but you can probably reach the same figure by restructuring his deal and keeping him around for future seasons.
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The Patriots could tack on an extra year or two to Godchaux’s deal while lowering his base salary down to $1.5-2 million. Godchaux has a $2.75 million signing bonus for this season, so that could be left in place to ensure that he is still seeing some money upfront. The extra years would continue to see Godchaux’s base salary rising, so he would have a bit of an incentive to sign the deal.
Both sides probably knew this was coming when they signed this deal last offseason, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a restructured deal happen sooner than later. Some may say that Godchaux has no reason to take a pay cut, but as I mentioned, the team could just as easily cut him to save money and sign a replacement for cheaper on the market if he refused. Either way, Godchaux’s current cap hit is too high, and the team needs to fix his deal before free agency starts.