Patriots: 2020 draft pick stuns team and walks away from NFL

Patriots seventh-round pick Dustin Woodard is leaving the NFL.

Just months after the Patriots thought they’d completed a robust draft featuring many future building blocks, they’ve lost one of those assets.

Memphis C Dustin Woodard, selected by the Patriots in the seventh round with pick 230, has walked away from the game on Thursday for undisclosed reasons, per Jim McBride of the Boston Globe.

According to those in the know, Woodard’s choice had nothing to do with the reality of COVID-19, or the way the league is handling safety protocols.

It’s possible (likely) the Patriots had more of an idea this was coming than the rest of us, as they signed C Tyler Gauthier earlier this week, who spent time on the team’s practice squad last year after arriving as a UDFA out of Miami.

Prior to Gauthier’s arrival, it was widely predicted that Woodard would compete for snaps behind David Andrews, whose long-term presence in New England is far from a certainty. Andrews missed the 2019 campaign with blood clots, and while medically cleared to resume his career, that’s the type of life-threatening condition that could dissuade an athlete from carrying on a dangerous occupation any longer than he has to.

Add in the loss of Dante Scarnecchia from the coaching staff, as well as the Marcus Cannon opt out, and you’ve got plenty of uncertainty up front for the Pats. Instead of taking advantage of the shifting roles, though, Woodard has chosen to walk away — and there simply has to be more at stake for him than just football and the spirit of competition, one would think.

All we can hope now is that we receive more information in the not-so-distant future about what caused Woodard to give up on the NFL so swiftly after arriving.

We can’t speculate about what fueled this sudden decision, and we wish the Memphis product well in retirement.

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