Patriots Trade For Eluemunor, Cunningham in Pair of Low-Risk, High-Reward Deals

The New England Patriots bolstered their thinning offensive line on Wednesday, making trades for two young linemen who could step in and play immediately.

In separate deals, the Patriots landed Jermaine Eluemunor and Korey Cunningham for late-round draft picks. Both players are young, and have shown flashes in their brief NFL careers.

Eluemunor entered the spring as the starting left guard for the Baltimore Ravens. But he quickly fell out of favor when he failed a conditioning test to open training camp and has dealt with injuries. A fifth-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, he was a member of the PFWA All-Rookie team in 2017. The Texas A&M product needed a change of scenery and likely the structure the Patriots can provide him.

Cunningham was a seventh-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, who was pressed into duty at left tackle for the Arizona Cardinals as a rookie. He made six starts for Arizona after D.J. Humphries was injured. At 6-foot-6 and 311 pounds with decent technique, Cunningham is worth the cost of a sixth-round pick.

With veteran center David Andrews out thanks to blood clots in his lungs, the Patriots needed to bolster their offensive line. Eluemunor will add depth to the interior with Andrews out. The Pats were also looking to find a tackle who could backup both Isaiah Wynn on the left side and Marcus Cannon on the right.

Cunningham has the talent to do that if the Patriots can harness it.

The price for Eluemunor has not been released yet, it has only been called “an undisclosed draft pick.” It’s a safe bet it will be a late-rounder.

This is yet another example of the Patriots executing a low-risk, high-reward trade at a position of need. For some reason, they’re really good at these deals and wind up finding plenty of gems doing it.