FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots sound willing to make a deal, but it remains to be seen if they’ll land an impact player by tomorrow’s NFL trade deadline.
Following the Patriots’ win over the Atlanta Falcons, Mike Vrabel’s team is 7-2, at the top of the AFC East, and tied for the best record in the conference. Last week, the front office dealt away two veteran players, safety Kyle Dugger and edge rusher Keion White, for a pair of sixth-round picks.
Vrabel’s team is in a position to add pieces to help them over the stretch run. According to a source, the Patriots have been active in preliminary trade talks surrounding veteran help.
On Monday, Vrabel said he would meet with his personnel department later in the day to discuss the trade deadline.
“What happens is personnel staff makes calls and they all have conversations as this thing leads up to it,” Vrabel said. “I’d just say continue to do our diligence about what those may be and what they look like, and then make a decision that we think is best for us. That’s what I hope that we do. Until I hear otherwise, we’ll have conversations this afternoon. Nothing new to report.”
The team could look to add depth to several areas, but running back and edge rusher are arguably the Patriots biggest needs.
At running back, the team already lost veteran Antonio Gibson and now, starter Rhamondre Stevenson is dealing with a toe injury. Adding another veteran to the group would be helpful to go with rookie TreVeyon Henderson and Terrell Jennings.
Edge rushers K’Lavon Chaisson (5.5 sacks) and Harold Landry (5.5 sacks) lead the Patriots in sacks. Heading into this season, it was thought that White would play a big role. However, that never materialized, and the Patriots traded White last week. Now, the team’s top backups are Anfernee Jennings (1 sack) and undrafted rookie Elijah Ponder.
With Jennings being strong against the run, the Patriots could add another pass rusher to join Landry and Chaisson.
“Just like everything else – figure out who’s available,” Vrabel said. “If they’re on our roster, if they’re not, do we need to get guys in here on the practice squad, or how do we want to handle the roster each and every week?”
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