Wolf met with the media at the Scouting Combine on Tuesday.
The New England Patriots have a sizable list of pending free agents, with 22 of their players currently scheduled to enter the open market in mid-March. Not every free agent is the same, and two of them in particular stand out this year: safety Kyle Dugger and offensive lineman Michael Onwenu.
Two members of the Patriots’ 2020 draft class, Dugger and Onwenu are multi-year starters who have proven themselves as building block players over their four years in New England so far. And while their respective futures are uncertain due to their contract statuses, director of scouting Eliot Wolf said on Tuesday that the team hopes to re-sign both of them.
“We definitely want to keep Mike and Kyle, and we’re hopeful we’ll continue to work with Kyle’s agent and Mike to make that happen,” Wolf said during a press conference at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Dugger arrived in New England as a second-round selection in 2020. Since then, he has appeared in 62 regular season and playoff games, has intercepted nine passes, and scored three defensive touchdowns. Additionally, he has helped fill the void created by the retirement of long-time starting safety Devin McCourty as a leader in the Patriots secondary.
Onwenu, meanwhile, joined the club in the sixth round of that year’s draft. Originally a guard coming out of Michigan, he also spent extensive time at tackle and offers starter-level experience and quality at three spots along the line (left guard, right guard, right tackle). In total, he has appeared in 65 games with 56 starts as a member of the Patriots.
Besides coming in as part of the same draft class, Dugger and Onwenu have something else in common: both changed agents this offseason. But while the former has found new representation, the latter remains a free agent in that regard.
For Wolf, however, this does not impact how the Patriots will deal with him.
“It doesn’t impact us,” he explained. “Mike’s a core player for us. It’s no secret we want to try to keep Mike, and it’ll be just a bit of a wrinkle dealing with him. Mike’s really smart, and he’s introspective, and he’s thoughtful. And he knows what he wants, which is always good when you’re dealing with a player. He’s certainly someone that we view as a cornerstone for us.”
Due to their body of work, both Dugger and Onwenu have established themselves as realistic contract extension candidates. There is a chance both could depart with the open market looming, though.
The Patriots do have one ace in the hole: they could use the franchise tag to keep at least one of them around for the 2024 season. According to Wolf, “all the options are on the table” at the moment.
The eventual goal remains to make the team better coming off a 4-13 season that resulted in wide-ranging organizational changes.
“We’re going to aggressively try to help the team,” Wolf said. “Take that however you want it, but we will try to do what’s right.”
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