Will the Patriots do anything before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline?
That remains to be seen. New England, like the rest of the league, has until 4 p.m. ET to finalize any trades. The Patriots typically are active at the deadline but rarely pull off blockbusters. Plus, New England’s salary cap situation could be a major factor this year.
Bill Belichick was asked Monday about where things stand for the Patriots ahead of the deadline.
“I think this is the time of year that personnel departments always communicate with each other,” Belichick said the morning after his team’s 27-24 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. “And we’ve certainly had, probably, the normal amount of communication with other teams that, whether they have an interest in a player or want to exchange a player or maybe have somebody that (they would trade).
“Those conversations go on, and we’ve had those where you talk for a week, 10 days, three or four days, whatever it is, and a situation’s imminent and never happens. And we’ve had other situations where it’s 2 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon and something comes up and you end up doing it.”
Belichick also discussed how the results of final games before the deadline can affect how teams approach roster decisions. He indicated that variable might have something to do with what’s been a relatively quiet rumor season.
“(It’s) fairly normal … for teams to have a little different point of view than they might have had on Saturday or Friday or Thursday when you talked to them before,” Belichick said. “Somebody got hurt; guy that was available, they need to keep him; or something happened and they feel like they want to just go ahead and move on from a player.
“And same thing for us. We’re sitting here today, and somebody could call, they lost somebody yesterday, and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got depth at this position, would you trade so and so?’ — or not.”
Belichick added: “I’m not too worried about that. I think (Patriots personnel director) Dave Ziegler and his staff, they have most of the communications on that, they keep me informed if there’s something that looks like it might be moving, or moving slowly, in a direction.”
Given the holes on their roster, the Patriots likely will do something before the trade deadline. Furthermore, their impressive win over the Chargers should reinforce the need to invest in a team that has as good of a chance as any to compete in an AFC devoid of juggernauts.
Follow NESN.com for all of the latest Patriots trade rumors and news as Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline approaches.
