There are some obvious positions of need on the New England Patriots' roster, and the trade deadline is less than three weeks away.
Pulling off a deal could be more difficult than it was in the past, however, and that was foreshadowed at the end of the summer when there were barely any trades or waiver claims around the cutdown date.
When asked about the Nov. 3 trade deadline, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick noted that players acquired in a trade will have to undergo a quarantining process because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also referenced the NFL salary cap, which is expected to drop next season.
"Even the movement now, it's been restricted, and it's been restricted even further in terms of bringing players in from outside the organization, whether that's in any capacity," Belichick said. "That process now is really about a week before you could actually get them onto the field, so that that changes things as well. Would that effect the trade deadline? I mean, I don't know. It might but maybe it's a longer view than that. I'm not sure. It's a good question.
"We'll have to see how much activity there is or isn't. Certainly are a lot of unknowns going forward, not just this year but even in the next year relative to team building and salary cap and so forth. That may have everybody with a little less ability to really plan things out the way they want to do them. That might be causing some hesitation, as well. So, certainly seeing more players stay with the teams that they're on and teams using those players as depth. With the injured reserve rules this year and the practice squad expansion has given teams more of an ability to do that and I think we're certainly seeing that play out."
The Patriots could use more talent at wide receiver, tight end, defensive tackle and linebacker. They do have some in-house options who could help at some of those positions with defensive tackle Beau Allen and linebacker Josh Uche on injured reserve. The Patriots also could hope they'll be seeing some improvement out of second-year wide receivers N'Keal Harry and Gunner Olszewski and rookie tight ends Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene if they can't bring in reinforcements from outside of the organization.
