Cannon traded to Texans
Opted out of 2020
The Patriots have agreed to trade right tackle Marcus Cannon to the Texans in a deal that also involves a swap of draft picks in multiple rounds of the 2021 NFL Draft, sources confirmed to the Herald.
The move will create more than $6.2 million in cap relief for the Pats, who had been projected to open free agency with between $50 million and $55 million in cap room.
Cannon was among the Pats’ top candidates to become a cap casualty this offseason, and became particularly expendable once they traded for Pro Bowl offensive tackle Trent Brown. At more than $9 million, Cannon was set to carry the fourth-highest cap hit on the team’s books after he’d opted out of the 2020 season. Instead, the Pats will create significant cap space and absorb roughly $2.5 million in dead money by trading him.
The Patriots drafted Cannon in the fifth round of the 2011 draft out of TCU. After overcoming a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Cannon played in seven games as a rookie. He became a regular starter midway through his career, ascending to the All-Pro second team in 2016. Together with Patriots right guard Shaq Mason, he formed one of the top run-blocking tandems in the league.
Over his final three seasons, Cannon started 35 games and established himself as one of the team’s toughest players by frequently playing through injury. After a 2019 win over the Cowboys, Bill Belichick offered unprompted praise for his right tackle after Cannon had fought through debilitating illness to play all but one series.
“I honestly didn’t expect him to play today. We talked before the game, and he felt like he’d be able to work through it. … I would say overall, it was one of the top efforts I’ve seen,” Belichick said. “For a guy who just barely had enough strength to put on his uniform, went out there and played against multiple good players … I thought he played very, very competitively.”
Cannon ends his New England career having won three Super Bowls and started 69 of a possible 108 games.
Last year, the Pats replaced Cannon with a combination of sixth-round rookie Michael Onwenu, a college guard, and journeyman Jermaine Eluemunor. Onwenu now projects to start at left guard, where he took reserve snaps last season, while Brown takes over at right tackle. It’s possible the coaching staff could shuffle the O-line further, if left tackle Isaiah Wynn is moved to guard instead of Onwenu.
The Pats are scheduled to play at Houston next season.
Unlike the team’s other opt-outs, Cannon had yet to report back to Foxboro this winter for a physical, according to ESPN.
The Boston Globe first reported the news of Cannon’s trade, adding the swapped draft picks are in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.