What signing Christian Barmore to a 4-year contract extension means for the Patriots

New England locked up its big-bodied offensive tackle through the 2028 season.

The NFL Draft may be in the rear-view mirror, but the New England Patriots are far from done equipping their team for the future.

On Monday, the Patriots and Christian Barmore reached an agreement on a four-year, $84 million contract extension. The deal will make him one of the highest-paid defensive tackles in football, and additionally keep Barmore under contract through the 2028 season.

Those are the basic facts, but what else does it mean for the Patriots? Let’s zoom out and take a big-picture look at the Barmore extension.

The core of the Patriots defense is locked up for the foreseeable future

Barmore is the latest in a series of long-term moves New England has made in its defense over the last 12 months. The team also signed safety Kyle Dugger and outside linebacker Anfernee Jennings to four- and three-year extensions, respectively, and brought cornerback Christian Gonzalez, defensive lineman Keion White, and safety Marte Mapu aboard with its first three selections in the 2023 draft.

All of them have the making of building-block players and are under team control for at least the next three years. Jennings, Gonzalez, White and Mapu are signed through 2026, with Gonzalez’s pact also including a fifth-year option for the 2027 season; Dugger is locked up through 2027; Barmore’s deal runs through 2028.

Time will tell whether they will all play to their capabilities and justify those investments. At least at the moment, however, future is looking bright for the Patriots on that side of the ball.

The ‘draft and develop’ investments continues

Ever since director of scouting Eliot Wolf took over the Patriots’ personnel department following Bill Belichick’s departure in January, the team has adopted a simple mantra when it comes to roster construction.

“We are a draft and develop team,” Wolf said during his pre-draft press conference earlier this month.

The moves outlined above all fall into this category, but they are far from the only ones. The Patriots also handed a sizable three-year extension to their former sixth-round draft pick, offensive tackle Michael Onwenu, in March. They also locked up veterans Kendrick Bourne and Hunter Henry on three-year deals, keeping them in the fold after first acquiring them as unrestricted free agents in 2021.

The Patriots signing players to contract extensions is not a new concept; they did the same under Belichick, too. So far, however, the team has prioritized spending its money on in-house options rather than external players since Wolf took over.

Barmore comes cheaper than expected

Besides the raw numbers — length, base value, maximum value, guarantees — nothing is known about Barmore’s new contract and its structure just yet. That said, we can still assess that New England was able to get the 24-year-old on the relatively cheap.

The contract’s average annual value of $21 million, after all, currently ranks just 12th among interior defensive linemen. For a player of Barmore’s disruptive potential and youth, this looks like good value for the team.

New England’s 2025 free agency class is getting smaller

As of Monday morning, the Patriots had a sizable portion of their roster up for new contracts next year. A total of 44 players were headed for the open market, including 28 unrestricted free agents. That number will obviously change between now and March 2025.

Quite possibly the biggest name on the list has now been taken care of. With Barmore’s deal no longer set to expire after the 2024 season, the most prominent names on the list include David Andrews, Davon Godchaux, Deatrich Wise Jr., Matthew Judon, Jonathan Jones and Jabrill Peppers.

It would not be a surprise if some if not most of them get taken care of over the coming weeks and months as well.

The defensive line outlook has vastly improved now

Barmore was not the only interior defensive lineman headed for free agency in 2025. In fact, a sizable portion of the group is set to test the market next spring: the aforementioned Davon Godchaux and Deatrich Wise Jr. are out of contract, as are Armon Watts, Daniel Ekuale, Jeremiah Pharms Jr., and Trysten Hill.

As of now, Barmore is one of three linemen signed beyond 2024. Alongside him in that group are Keion White (signed through 2026) and Sam Roberts (signed through 2025).