The Patriots already made a pair of moves prior to next week’s trade deadline when they traded Keion White to the San Francisco 49ers and Kyle Dugger to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
What they’ll do next remains unclear, but one former Patriots linebacker thinks he knows who they should try to bring to New England.
“How about we go and get a guy who just had five sacks against us?,” Rob Ninkovich said of Myles Garrett during his appearance on WEEI. “I slid into his DMs. I said to him, ‘Get to New England, brother, and help this place get back to the championship.’”
Ninkovich added that Garrett had not seen the message as of Wednesday morning.
Garrett was a difficult test for New England in its Week 8 win over the Cleveland Browns. He sacked Drake Maye five times and made his presence known for Cleveland throughout the game.
The Browns signed Garrett to a massive four-year, $160 million contract in March, which made him the highest-paid non quarterback. Garrett’s time in Cleveland hasn’t been perfect. He requested a trade in the offseason before he signed his new contract.
Cleveland has arguably the NFL’s messiest quarterback situation. Deshaun Watson tore his Achilles twice — once during his rehab — and won’t play in 2025, Joe Flacco has struggled, as has rookie Dillon Gabriel. The Browns also have Shedeur Sanders, who hasn’t made his NFL debut yet.
Adding someone like Garrett to the Patriots defense would certainly make them more of a threat in the AFC East. Ninkovich believes because they have a quarterback “for the long haul” in Maye, his former team should take advantage while he’s on a rookie contract to get “big time pieces.”
“I know (coach Mike) Vrabel said he wants to build through the draft, but if you can go get a guy that can get to the quarterback, and you have to double-team him and chip him, whatever you spend, it’s going to come back to you,” he said. “Because in the playoffs when you play in a team that has maybe three or four weapons, well, then they only have two or three because they have to take a guy out, they got to make sure they chip them.”
The NFL trade deadline is Nov. 4, and it will certainly be interesting to see how the Patriots continue to handle it.
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