Throughout Bill Belichick's tenure with the Patriots, there were plenty of decisions he made as head coach and assumed general manager that still have fans scratching their heads in disbelief, many of which surround acquiring or letting go of impressive players.
Although he did seem to have a knack for moving on from someone at the right time, even if it didn't feel like it in the moment, he also traded or let go of far too many who were still in their prime and went on to be instrumental in another team's success.
One of the more notable examples of that is offensive lineman Joe Thuney, who left the Patriots for the Chiefs in 2021, signing a massive five-year, $80 million contract that the Patriots very easily could have (and probably should have) offered.
He has since won two more Super Bowls and is now continuing his career with the Bears, reuniting with his college teammate, the Patriots' 2025 starting center, Garrett Bradbury, who couldn't help but take a shot at his former team for moving on from Thuney when they did.
The Patriots decision to move on from Joe Thuney is still incomprehensible to Garrett Bradbury
He made it part of his first comments to Chicago media on Thursday, and it was hard to forget the massive mistake the Patriots made five years ago in letting Thuney go, especially during a season where they were looking to find a new left guard.
New Bears center Garrett Bradbury says his college teammate Joe Thuney is “a stud.”
— Sean Hammond (@sean_hammond) March 12, 2026
“It blows my mind that two teams have let that guy walk out of the building,” he said, alluding to the Patriots and Chiefs.
To be fair, it still blows the mind of most Patriots fans, too.
High-performing offensive linemen are not easy to find in the NFL, so it's generally unwise to allow someone like Thuney to walk in free agency. It's even worse when you then struggle for years to find an adequate replacement, and hopefully, the Patriots won't have that issue now that Alijah Vera-Tucker is on the roster.
It's another one of those moves by Belichick that is still difficult to understand, and the draft picks in the years that followed didn't help much, either. Let's not forget about trading down to take Cole Strange in Round 1, only to eventually move on from him before his rookie contract was up.
There are a lot of stains on Belichick's legacy, although the success is certainly something that will be remembered far more than something like this. However, because the team still hasn't fully recovered from Thuney's loss, it's difficult to just move on and forget that Belichick was good with Thuney signing elsewhere.