Guarding Too Much Money

The Pats have a huge salary cap problem with so much dead money on the books due to Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Stephen Gotskowski and Antonio Brown.

They have several players that are taking up huge amounts of space. They have committed $28.5 million to guards Shaq Mason and Joe Thuney. They lead the league in money spent on starting guards.

Although they are both great players, this is preventing them from signing other free agents.

Belichick would like to trade Thuney, but doesn't want him to go to a potential rival or get minimal in return.