Patriots Trade Rumors: This Team Might Pursue QB Mac Jones

The Patriots might receive an offseason phone call from a few old friends who are in the quarterback market.

The Las Vegas Raiders need to start fresh behind center after moving on from longtime starter Derek Carr. In an ESPN column published Sunday, NFL insider Dan Graziano identified the Silver and Black as a “team to watch” for Aaron Rodgers, who could be traded by the Green Bay Packers. A Rodgers blockbuster would be complicated and expensive, though, so the Raiders might be better off looking elsewhere.

And according to Graziano, Josh McDaniels could kick the tires on a pair of signal-callers who he worked with in New England.

“If they can’t get him (Rodgers), a lot of people in Indianapolis this week expect McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler to pursue free agent quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, whom they know from his time in New England early in his career,” Graziano wrote. “There’s also some chatter that McDaniels might try to acquire Mac Jones from the Patriots, though it seems unlikely New England would consider moving the 2021 first-rounder.”

“Unlikely” might be a mild way of explaining the potential for a Jones trade this offseason. NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran, one of the more plugged-in Patriots reporters, recently said a Jones deal in the coming months would “happen over Robert Kraft’s dead body.”

This isn’t to say Jones undoubtedly will be New England’s Week 1 starter in 2023, though. Although it’s the likeliest outcome, the Patriots’ reported feelings about Bailey Zappe suggest there will be a true QB competition in Foxboro this summer.