Patriots reportedly won't pick up option on Cole Strange’s contract (2025)

Patriots

Strange only appeared in three games last season while recovering from a knee injury.

By Conor Ryan

April 30, 2025

2 minutes to read

The 2025 NFL season is reportedly going to be a contract year for Patriots’ 2022 first-round pick Cole Strange.

According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Patriots are not picking up the fifth-year option for Strange, meaning that the 26-year-old offensive lineman is entering the final year of his rookie contract this season.

New England’s decision to not pick up that option isn’t much of a surprise. Picking up that option would have kept Strange in New England for another season in 2026, but at a $16.8 million payout.

So far, Strange has not validated that financial commitment — with the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga product dealing with injuries since joining New England.

Strange was a surprise pick by Bill Belichick and the Patriots in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft — with the team taking the athletic guard with the 29th overall pick. Many thought that Strange was going to be a Day 2 or even Day 3 pick in that draft, with Rams head coach Sean McVay openly laughing at Strange’s draft position after the news broke.

“How about that?” McVay said of Strange. “And we wasted our time watching him thinking he’d be at 104, maybe.”

Strange started every game at left guard for New England during the 2022 season, but then suffered a torn patellar tendon after 10 games played in 2023.

He did not return to game action with New England until the final weeks of the 2024 season — playing in three total games and starting two of them at center.

While shifting Strange over to center was more out of necessity after David Andrews’ season-ending injury last year, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel noted at the NFL meetings in Florida that the team planned on keeping Strange at center moving forward.

“Cole’s worked hard at center the last couple weeks of the season. It was pretty impressive considering he hadn’t spent much time there,” Vrabel said. “He’ll work on the interior three, but I think you give him an opportunity to compete at center and build off of what he did at the end of last year.”

But Strange’s role as a starter is far from a guarantee in 2025.

New England selected Georgia center Jared Wilson in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft, with the team also signing veteran center Garrett Bradbury earlier this offseason.

If Strange slots back at left guard, he will also compete for starting reps alongside guards likeLayden Robinson and Sidy Sow.

Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf noted that Wilson — much like Strange — could also play at left guard as well.

“We see versatility as the name of the game here,” Wolf said of Strange’s starting spot at either center or left guard. “So, we feel like Cole, obviously, has the experience at guard primarily, he got that great experience at center last year, so we feel like he can compete at both spots.”