After four years in New England, Ekuale is taking his talents to the Steelers.
The New England Patriots had a relatively quiet weekend, but it was capped off by one of their in-house free agents leaving the organization. Defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale, who first joined the team in 2021, left to sign an undisclosed contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Let’s find out what his departure means for his now-former club.
More defensive line turnover
Within the last seven days, the Patriots said goodbye to three members of their defensive tackles group. Both Ekuale and Deatrich Wise Jr. left to sign free agency contracts elsewhere; Ekuale joins the aforementioned Steelers, with Wise Jr. getting a one-year deal from the Washington Commanders. Davon Godchaux, meanwhile, was traded to the New Orleans Saints.
With those three gone, the Patriots lost 311 total games’ worth of experience as well as a combined 1,809 defensive snaps from a year ago: Ekuale and Godchaux were starters along the interior, finishing ranked second and third, respectively, behind only end/edge hybrid Keion White; Wise Jr., a team captain, finished fifth after seeing his snap count impacted by injury and a reduced role.
Their departures were accompanied by New England making some serious investments up front. Milton Williams was signed to a four-year, $104 million contract in free agency, while Khyiris Tonga came aboard via a one-year, $2.1 million deal.
With them in the fold, the group now looks as follows:
Interior defensive line (8): Christian Barmore (90), Milton Williams (97), Keion White (99), Khyiris Tonga (95), Jeremiah Pharms Jr. (98), Jaquelin Roy (94), Eric Johnson (96), Marcus Harris (58)
Williams and Tonga, as well as Christian Barmore, Keion White and Jeremiah Pharms Jr. look like the core up front moving forward. There appears to be potential for more additions, particularly to help out against the run, but the bulk of the work seems done for the time being.
Positive sign for Barmore?
When starter Christian Barmore was diagnosed with blood clots just three months after inking a four-year, $84 million contract extension, the Patriots turned to Ekuale to help replace him. As a consequence, he ended up playing a career high 722 defensive snaps and started more games (16) than in the first six seasons of his career combined (5).
Even though his performance was up and down, in large part due to him being put in an unfamiliar position not necessarily suited to his strengths, the Patriots keeping him around as insurance policy for Barmore appeared to have made sense before free agency. That obviously did not happen, which in turn sparks the question whether or not Ekuale leaving for Pittsburgh can be seen as a positive sign for Barmore’s recovery.
Well, not necessarily.
While he was essentially used as a 1-for-1 replacement in 2024, the situation is a bit more complex in 2025. There is a new coaching staff in place bringing a new schematic focus, while his age and a deep draft class at the position seemingly also worked against him independently of Barmore’s outlook.
Ekuale leaving may or may not be a tipping of the hand from the team’s side. At the moment, however, there are too many factors involved to give any definitive answers.
Four free agents left
The Patriots entered the offseason with 17 players headed for free agency, but they had only five left standing at the end of the first week of free agency. Ekuale moving on reduced that number even further, with now four players left unaccounted for.
Running back JaMycal Hasty, edge defender Oshane Ximines, and kicker Joey Slye are all traditional unrestricted free agents, while New England decided against retaining offensive lineman Lester Cotton as a restricted free agent. None of the four were considered particularly likely re-signings heading toward the open market.
No compensatory impact
Although the terms of Ekuale’s contract with the Steelers are not yet available, it won’t matter: based on their moves made over the last few days, the Patriots will not get any compensatory draft picks next year.
This means that 2026 will mark the third straight year with no extra selections coming New England’s way, a result of both the Patriots’ quality of in-house free agents and their ability to sign higher-profile players due to serious amounts of cap space being available.