The New England Patriots don’t have a Davante Adams, Amari Cooper nor DeAndre Hopkins in their receiver room. Instead, they have veterans like Kendrick Bourne, K.J. Osborn and Tyquan Thornton, all of whom also could be dealt before the NFL trade deadline.
So while the trade packages for Adams, Cooper and most recently Hopkins are nothing to scoff at, they certainly don’t serve as a blueprint for the Patriots. It’s not as if Patriots would receive those same assets if they sent Bourne, Osborn or Thornton anywhere. Hell, a package of all three probably wouldn’t go for one of those returns.
The Las Vegas Raiders received a conditional third-round pick for Adams, the Cleveland Browns essentially acquired a third-rounder for Cooper and the Tennessee Titans reportedly received a conditional fourth-rounder for Hopkins.
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What Patriots fan wouldn’t take those assets, right? The 1-6 Patriots are in a similar situation to the 2-5 Raiders, 1-6 Browns and 1-6 Titans, after all. New England should be moving on from players it can get something for, but the Pats don’t have many of those.
Bourne probably would garner the best of three returns. The energetic veteran is the most accomplished, the most productive and is playing on a reasonable deal with term remaining. Unfortunately, he’s also a 29-year-old coming off an ACL tear, which caused him to miss the first four games of the season. Maybe the Patriots get offered a conditional sixth-rounder from someone like the San Francisco 49ers?
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Osborn, who’s recent social media activity suggested he’s unhappy in New England, was available on the open market in March. He agreed to a modest one-year, $4 million deal with the Patriots. Does that sound like someone teams would get into a bidding war for ahead of the deadline? Osborn has seven catches for 57 yards in five games (four starts) this season. Maybe a team throws out a seventh-rounder hoping he looks like he did with the Minnesota Vikings?
Thornton, meanwhile, might attract the least interest despite he’s younger (24) and a 2022 second-round pick. He’s done next to nothing in three seasons and has been a healthy scratch by the Patriots each of the last two weeks. If you can’t get on the gameday roster for this receiver room chances are you won’t anywhere. New England reportedly is trying to trade Thornton, but it’s hard to believe there will be any suitors for a player with 15 catches in the last two seasons (14 games).
So while some teams are receiving legitimate draft capital before the NFL trade deadline, don’t expect the Patriots to be among them.
Featured image via Kirby Lee/Imagn Images