Trade Winds

It’s accepted wisdom the NFL trade deadline is designed to prevent trades; it’s simply too early for teams that are failing to admit they’ve given up. This season may be a little different. The rash of injuries to key players and the relatively large number of “have nots” have some of us dreaming of a mid-season fix.

 

The Patriots have surfaced in a number of trade scenarios due to injuries on defense and lack of production on offense. Sadly, none of the rumors feature Larry Fitzgerald with a flying Elvis on his helmet.

Maybe Tommy Kelly comes back and stabilizes the inside alongside rookies Joe Vellano and Chris Jones. Maybe Kelly will be playing hurt (at best) the rest of the season and the rookies will be rookies. If the Patriots are forced to play Brandon Spikes and Dont’a Hightower to bolster the run defense, opposing offenses will kill them with the short passing game just like the Jets did last Sunday. If they sub Dane Fletcher and rookie Jamie Collins I’m guessing teams will run and run and run some more.

Unfortunately, defensive tackle is likely the most difficult position of need the Patriots have. I can’t even imagine what it would take to get a Gerald McCoy from Tampa Bay, for example. Ryan Mallett trade rumors have become a parody of themselves at this point but let’s just throw that out there. (What’s Mike Kafka doing these days?) How are the Buccaneers feeling about the Mike Glennon era? How about the Rams? They were desperate enough to dial up Brett Favre. What have they got? And because I just can’t let it go: How about Mallett and a couple of picks for Larry Fitzgerald? Wouldn’t Bruce Arians rather build around Mallett than try to squeeze one more good year out of Carson Palmer?

Okay. Deep breath. A shot of tequila.

There’s no way the Patriots will pick up a player like McCoy or Fitzgerald, in large part because of the salary cap (New England has a bit less than $6m available). The Patriots don’t have enough money for McCoy or Fitzgerald without dumping some salary in the deal (Dan Connolly?) and that would likely mean trading one problem for another. As for free agents, they don’t have enough cash or enough love for Richard Seymour who would make a lot more sense than Jay Ratliff.

Bringing back Andre Carter at DE is a bit puzzling. I’ve heard the theory that Carter would allow New England to shift Rob Ninkovich to an OLB spot but that strikes me as the kind of move that makes the Pats weaker at two positions (is Ninkovich a better coverage option than Hightower?). Maybe Carter can give them more than Michael Buchanan has the last couple of games and help mentor the rookie DE in the bargain – and second-year player Jake Bequette, too, if we haven’t given up on him (I think we have).

But.

It’s been two years since Carter was a productive pass rusher in the NFL. He won’t be on the field on first and second down while opposing offenses are running the ball up the “A” gap over the rookies playing for Big Vince and Tommy Kelly, either.

Carter’s signing does kill the Jared Allen rumors, not that they would’ve been able to afford Allen, either.

There’s also Bill Belichick’s obsessive love of draft picks to be considered, though the Patriots showed last year with the trade for Aqib Talib that they’ll take a one-year rental given the right circumstances. Hakeem Nicks, anyone? A Giants’ fan friend of mine described Nicks as lazy and I have to admit I was unimpressed by his effort in the G-Men’s first win of the season last Monday night over the Vikings. The other WR options all seem to be “troubled” to a lesser or greater degree; Josh Gordon and Justin Blackmon are physically gifted but I suspect their Wonderlic scores were in the single digits – the low single digits.

Having said that, I’d probably see a trade for Nicks, Gordon or Blackmon as a positive (they may be stupid and lazy, but at least they’re not fat). Then again, who knows what we’ll see today when the Patriots host the Dolphins? Maybe this is the week Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson make the jump. Okay, I’d be happy with either one of them stepping up. They’ve been getting incrementally better but we’ve yet to see either have a game that would make us happily dispense with talking ourselves into Nicks, Gordon or Blackmon. It would help if Amendola can get back on the field and stay there, of course. There seem to be some good parts – Julian Edelman, Austin Collie, Amendola, Thompkins and Dobson – but they (so far) haven’t been able to shout Jenga! Even Rob Gronkowski’s impressive return to action wasn’t enough to clarify roles and responsibilities. When your company’s motto is “Do your job!” that tends to be important.

Maybe the best thing the Patriots could do is nothing. Put the trade deadline in their rear view. Let the players in the locker room know that it’s up to them. Maybe Belichick can take the parts available and build a pigskin DeLorean that takes the Patriots back to 2003. That could be fun to watch.

As much fun as Brady to Fitzgerald?

Maybe more.