The New England Patriots march into Week 1 of the 2018 NFL season as the favorites to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Yet, the final 53-man roster that head coach Bill Belichick will be counting on to deliver the goods has yet to be sculpted down to size.
With roster cuts just around the corner, the Patriots can also exercise their option to trade some pieces, just like they did almost a year ago when they sent quarterback Jacoby Brissett to the Indianapolis Colts for wide receiver Phillip Dorsett and shipped a draft pick to the Cincinnati Bengals in exchange for linebacker Marquis Flowers.
Asked whether the Patriots are also leaning on making trades this close to the regular season, Bill Belichick implied that nothing is set in stone yet, but made it evident that New England is leaving the door open for such transactions, per Tyler Sullivan of 247 Sports.
“Again, it depends,” Belichick said on Tuesday. “We've already seen a couple transactions in the last few days. There's a lot of talking. We'll see how much actually gets done. Again, you can talk about things – that's fairly common. To actually find something that works for one team, that works for the other team, that both teams want to do, is less common, but I'm sure it's going to happen. And, again, at this point in time, it's a little bit of a make an educated guess as to who's going to be available and who isn't. If you feel like you have to trade for a player to get the player, then you're more likely to make the trade. If you think you can get the player without trading for him, or if you have two or three players that if you get any one of those you'd feel like that would help your team and doesn't necessarily have to be one particular one, then maybe you're not as anxious to trade and you wait and see what's available.
If the Patriots are thinking of a trade, it’s probably to bolster their seemingly thin group of receivers. Jordan Matthews, Kenny Britt, and Malcolm Mitchell have all been released by the team due to health issues. Furthermore, Julian Edelman will be serving a four-game suspension to start the season, and Eric Decker retired.
New England opens its season on Sep. 9 at home against the visiting Houston Texans.
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