How do NFL trade deadline deals impact the Patriots?

How do NFL trade deadline deals impact the Patriots?

But the Athletic was pretty bullish on the pass before 400 p.m. rolled around. They predict the Patriots will finish with a 12 and5 record and give them the highest chance of any team in the AFC to make the playoffs at 90%. The numbers do dip from there. 60% chance to win the East, 28% chance of landing the top seed in the conference, and a 32% chance of hosting a wild card game. All right, back here with the guys. Bert, I’m going to start with you this time. How do you think these deals in and around the NFL in particular, the ones in the AFC with the Colts and the Jaguars, how does that impact the Patriots? I like I don’t think the Jaguars one does much. I think the Colts does. Like I think the Colts it’s it’s not only I mean it’s a it’s a really good player coming aboard and it was a huge need for them. like they’re basically turning over the next few weeks a weakness of theirs which was like the one position they were looking at before the trade deadline into a massive strength because not only are they getting S Gardner they’re getting Chvaris Ward who was a big money free agent back from injury. So now all of a sudden Louis anumo is going to be able to do like handle his defense much differently. Um, so I do think the Colts one does affect the race and I think that there’s always that too with a team like that that hasn’t won where you send this message of urgency to your locker room where you say like we’re all in on you guys and that’s a group that they’ve built over the last three or four years. Um, and it’s affirmation for the quarterback too, right? Like because if you’re going to pursue a replacement for Daniel Jones, like you’re going to do it with high picks and trading those away tells you Daniel Jones is their guy. Can I ask you why that’s okay when the Patriots was because Yeah. And and and and so obviously like there’s the whole thing about it being in division, right? Like where if you were trading for Quinn Williams, but you’re saying conceptually conceptually why go for it if you’re the Colts and not conceptually because if you look at the Colts roster, they don’t have a lot of holes. Almost their entire team is homegrown, right? Like so you look at just the way that they’ve been built and that foundation is really solid. And I remember having, you know, discussions with people there over the summer. I thought this was one of the most interesting things I heard from any team over the summer was last year the Colts were 29th in total defense and 30th in giveaways and they still won eight games. And the message was we’re a lot closer than you think. And it’s like if we can just get a quarterback who can put his hands at 10 and two and we can get a defensive coordinator who can dial it up, we’re going to be a playoff team and probably a playoff team easily. And it was Lou Anumo coming in to run their defense and Daniel Jones coming in to play quarterback. They believed in the rest of their roster and they felt like over time they built that roster up. It’s just a very different spot. You got a you got a coach in his third year, you got a general manager in his ninth year. Yeah. For this year it it makes sense for them to be all in and it makes sense for them to add defensively because it did feel like there was an imbalance there. They really kind of were being carried by their offense and the great play that they were getting from that side of the ball. I just long term I do wonder if this was smart because of the Daniel Jones factor. Yeah, it’s half a season and he’s been great. The weather’s been good. He’s playing his games indoors and obviously he’ll continue to do that if they sign him longterm, his home games at least. I just I would want to see it for a little bit longer than nine games, Treny, before I basically sacrifice my right to be able to draft a quarterback up high or maybe go and deal for one with a with one of these first round picks. I need more than nine games. No, I I just don’t I’m not sure on the player. I’m just not sure on the player. on Sauce Gardner on Sauce Gardner because the Jets paid him in July and they traded him three months later. Yes, the Colts approached the Jets on it. But did the Jets see something in the first two months of the season where those new new guys were like if someone comes and asks maybe we should listen? Like I just think that that’s a like how often have we seen that right? you just say, “You know what? If we’re not getting that much more from this guy, we can get a first round pick and yes, it’s going to be a later first round pick because of the cold situation right now, but we can get a first round pick and we’ll have our own and we can rebuild because we’re clearly a horrible team and still need to do more building.” So, but I’m not saying that everything was right. I mean, rainbows and unicorn sauce has been very up and down. He was excellent as a rookie. Like, first two years were good. Last year, it felt like it kind of went off the rails a little bit and they still paid. So like and and and I remember Troy Brown, you guys were sitting on the set with me, I think. Like Troy Brown used to always say money only makes you more of what you already are, right? So like you wonder with sauce. Like why am I getting that weird look from you? Well, he’s saying he’s saying if you’re not like a hard worker or you’re not that money isn’t going to make you work harder and going to make you a better person. This has turned into a podcast. It’s going to make Yeah, it’s going to make you make you more into what you already were. All right. Uh the Colts obviously went all in to boost their roster and that’s where the comparisons are going to come in with the Patriots. But Greg Bernard said it is not the time and place for the Patriots to be aggressive with deadline moves. 10 of their 11 starters on offense are homegrown. On defense, they have at least five homegrown guys. You know how many p how many the Patriots have? I mean, if you just take out this year’s rookie, they have four on offense, three on defense. The Patriots are in the beginning stages of a rebuild. and you don’t rebuild that, you know, bottom layer, the youth, by trading away your draft picks by some guys who might be here for a year or two. We will get to the point where we’re like one of these teams that is quote unquote going for it. So, you think Washington overcommitted? Yes. Yes. So, Greg, we are talking about the Washington Commanders there, not the Indianapolis Colts. You disagree with Greg? I I do. I I think the commanders have made basically one bad deal. The Marshon Ladmore deal has not helped. It didn’t help him at the end of last year. They gave away a bunch of picks. I understand that they are now down some draft picks, but they’ve got a good left tackle and Laramie Tonsel like that’s worthy of making that kind of trade when you have a young quarterback who’s clearly ready to win. Debo Samuel to me hasn’t been the reason they have a losing record right now. The reason they have a losing record right now is because the quarterback either hasn’t been on the field or when he has been on the field, he’s been banged up and he’s been something less than 100%. So, to me, I don’t hate what the Commanders have done. And I do think, Tom, there is a way to improve. Again, this is reiterating what we’ve already said about the Patriots, but it’s not black and white. It’s not either you trade all your draft picks or you hold them all. Like, you can still be a team that builds through the draft and part with when you have two fourths and four sixths for this upcoming spring, part with a couple of those to add a little bit of depth. There is a there is a middle ground there that I don’t think Greg’s really acknowledging. It’s 11 11 picks they have. 11 guys aren’t going to make the team. What are they going to do with those picks? Are they going to package and move up and take a third rounder at some point and just incrementally move up as Albert was alluding to? That all remains to be seen as does the unknown because they’re not going to be transparent about these are the deals we were on the cusp of making. They were asking for a third. We weren’t coughing that up. And then if we knew those things and we knew the players, then we’d say, “All right, that makes sense.” and we would move on to November 5th. Kurt, I feel like at the end of the day, what’s most important is how successful can the Patriots continue to be, especially in I think a really wide openen AFC. Has your feelings changed with the moves that other people have made about what they’re capable of? No. And that’s because whatever new toy they imported, say it was the who was the defensive end who went to Chicago? Dr. Jones. Oh. Um to Chicago, it was Joe. Joe Tri. Okay. Couldn’t pick him up. If Joe Tryon walked into this off studio right now, I’d say, “Hi, how are you? You seem to be a big fella. You play in the NFL.” Got long arms. So, but had they done that, you know, we’d be shooting off the confetti cannons because something happened. I don’t know if they’re going to lament that they should have done something. So, to me, I it doesn’t alter how I think their fortunes will be. I still worry about the stray injury to a an Austin Hooper or a M. Collins and then next thing you know they are the equivalent of running Matthew Slater out at their wide receiver is Stephen Jackson at running back. I know I mix it in a whole bunch of different business but that’s what happened in 2015. They had a mess of injuries and all of a sudden they were not able to compete with the best player in the history of the game, a quarterback. I Yeah. I I mean I I just think like again you’re to me like where this where this puts you relative to everybody else in the AFC, I think you’re in the same spot. you’re a rising young program that I think is going to be really one to watch as a team that’s ready to take a step up to being a true like Super Bowl threat in 2026 with a few moves, right? Like I think they’ve actually that’s great progress for them and I can’t believe we’re talking about that already. Um, but I don’t think this year they’re good enough.

Albert Breer, Phil Perry, Tom E. Curran and Treni Casey dicsuss deals made around the league and how they impact the AFC East.