New England Patriots - NESN.com
The Patriots need help at receiver and edge rusher. And it just so happens that three of the best players at those positions — Commanders wideout Terry McLaurin, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons and Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson — reportedly have requested trades amid contract disputes with their teams.
So, could New England pursue deals with Washington, Dallas or Cincinnati? Perhaps, but Patriots fans probably shouldn’t get their hopes up.
“The Patriots — like every team — are constantly looking for possible ways to improve their roster,” The Athletic’s Dianna Russini wrote Tuesday in an X post. “But from conversations I’ve been having, I don’t sense that New England is close on a deal for any of the NFL’s disgruntled stars at this time.”
In a separate post, NFL insider Josina Anderson cast doubt on the possibility of the Patriots acquiring Hendrickson.
“I’m told the New England Patriots currently feel the cost to acquire Bengals star rusher Trey Hendrickson is ‘too much,’ per a league source as of Monday,” Anderson wrote. “The club continues to do due diligence by monitoring the market for Hendrickson.”
Both reports arrived a day after Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said he’d be willing to part with a first-round pick to swing a major trade before the start of the season.
“I think those things are often a lot more complicated than the fans and some others would like to make you believe,” Wolf told reporters. “But if there is something we think can help us, we’d definitely be open to it.”
The Patriots have popped up in late-summer trade over the last few years — last season’s Brandon Aiyuk drama comes to mind — but nothing significant ever came to fruition. We’ll just have to wait and see whether this year turns out differently.
