4 Patriots Unlikely to Return in 2025 After Poor Start to Season
By Ryan Bunton
3. Tyquan Thornton
Since Thornton was taken in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Patriots fans have been waiting for him to finally realize his potential. It feels like every offseason, a breakout season from Thornton has been promised, but the Baylor product has completely failed to deliver. In three seasons with New England, the 24-year-old has only 37 catches for 365 yards and two touchdowns.
The miss of Thornton is even more damaging considering that George Pickens, Alec Pierce, and Skyy Moore all went within the next five picks.
In 2024, Thornton only has two catches on five targets for 27 yards. New England's coaching staff is clearly also losing faith in him, as his snap counts have consistently dropped from 58 percent in Week 1, to 46 percent in Week 2, to 33 percent in Week 3, and 20 percent in Week 4.
Thornton is still under contract for 2025 with a cap hit of $2.24 million, but eventually, the Patriots are going to have to cut their losses and admit that they whiffed on this draft pick. He is a prime candidate to be released before the 2025 season unless he somehow turns into 2007 Randy Moss in the second half of the season.