The Patriots aren’t expected to hammer out an extension with Joe Thuney before this afternoon’s deadline, according to Ian Rapoport and Michael Giardi of NFL.com (on Twitter). With that, the offensive guard is set to play on a one-year, $14.78MM deal. 
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The Patriots caught everyone off guard in March when they applied the franchise tag to Thuney. Even after that point, many believed that the tag was Step One towards a tag-and-trade. Instead, the Patriots tagged Thuney with the intention of keeping him and they had some talks with his camp about a multi-year arrangement.
Lately, there hasn’t been much momentum on that front. Frankly, it would be off-brand for the Patriots to pay top dollar for players as they approach free agency, and the current climate doesn’t help matters.
Thuney, 28 in November, has started in all 64 of his games for the Pats over the last three seasons. And, over the last two seasons, he’s graded out as one of the league’s five best offensive guards in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics.