The New England Patriots have done plenty of roster reconstruction over the last several weeks, but the specifics aren’t exactly what fans were hoping for.
New England was rather conservative with its approach prior to the NFL trade deadline passing at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday — trading defensive back Kyle Dugger to the Pittsburgh Steelers and defensive lineman Keion White to the San Francisco 49ers, while bringing aboard several members to the practice squad in wide receiver Brenden Rice and running backs D’Ernest Johnson, Rushawn Baker and Jonathan Ward.
I’d be wrong to paint that approach as anything other than underwhelming, but that’s how the organization needed to operate…
The Patriots’ window still isn’t open, and won’t be until they address their depth issues and find ways to continue bringing in young talent — which you can’t do by shipping off premium draft picks for rental players who won’t be around once the window actually does open.
I’ve heard just about every counter argument you can think of, and none of them have been sound enough to move me off that position.
Story continues below advertisement
“Drake Maye is still on his rookie contract, you need to take advantage now!” “The AFC is terrible, which team are you scared of?” “Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams both got traded, so there’s controlled talent for sale!”
I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear that I have a counter to all of those points!
Maye is absolutely fantastic, and you’ll hear no argument out of me about that, but the idea that you need to compete while a quarterback is on his rookie contract is flat out incorrect. Patrick Mahomes (2019) and Russell Wilson (2013) are the last two examples of that, and that last few examples of players to come close — Brock Purdy in 2023, Jalen Hurts in 2022, Joe Burrow in 2021 and Jared Goff in 2018 — all lost to veterans that had signed nine-figure contracts.
Story continues below advertisement
The AFC is extremely flawed, but so are the Patriots. If you’re going to ignore that they have the easiest strength of schedule than we can’t have a serious argument because that exhilarating win over the Buffalo Bills has been sandwiched between victories over non-competitive teams like the Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans.
Gardner and Williams are the two best players we’ve seen dealt at the deadline maybe ever, but did you forget who they used to play for? The New York Jets were the only team doing business in that manner, and you were perhaps the last franchise they would be open to dealing with — so that was never going to happen.
More Patriots
Patriots Trade Deadline Tracker: Latest Rumors, Updates
by Logan Mullen
4 Min Read
Patriots Reportedly Work Out Three Players Ahead Of Trade Deadline
by Owen Crisafulli
3 Min Read
It’s certainly frustrating to see multiple teams within your conference make efforts at improving, but trying to hit the fast-forward button has never been a good way of doing business. The Patriots weren’t going to win Super Bowl LX no matter what they did at the deadline, so why waste assets?
Story continues below advertisement
I would have liked to have seen a late-round pick swap or two, but that’s a story for another day.
New England knows what it needs, and knows that the best way of addressing those needs won’t comer for several more months. The 2026 NFL Draft will afford you an opportunity to build depth on both sides of the ball, but you need picks to do that. Free agency is a great place for upgrades, but you don’t want to allocate future money before that time comes.
February 9, 2026 — that’s the date when this organization can seriously start outfitting its roster for a run to Super Bowl LXI, but not before then.
Story continues below advertisement