When the New England Patriots traded Demaryius Thomas to the New York Jets, the deal turned plenty of heads. Not so much because of the player involved, but the teams.
With the trade, Bill Belichick snapped a lengthy transaction drought with the Jets that actually predated his time in New England. But with Antonio Brown signed, plus N’Keal Harry and Cameron Meredith eligible to be activated later this season, there was not a huge need for Thomas.
So how did the deal go down? During his conference call with New England media ahead of the Jets’ tilt with the Patriots on Sunday, New York head coach Adam Gase shed a little light on how things unfolded.
“I think when (Jets general manager) Joe Douglas came to me,” Gase said, “and when (Brown) got there, we were kind of in a situation where if we could find somebody that had knowledge of the system, that could help us, that was somebody that fit what we were looking for, which obviously Demaryius does, we were trying to figure out, ‘How could we go about this?’ I think to Joe’s credit, he was like, ‘I’m just going to call him and the worst they could say is no.’ And when they said, ‘Let’s talk,’ then those guys worked it out.”
Gase’s comments come after Belichick provided a little insight into the move himself. And even though both sides appear content with the deal, the two division rivals doing business with one another probably won’t become common practice.
