Why Patriots Should Be NFL Trade Deadline Buyers (Even If They Also Sell)

The Patriots should be one of the NFL’s busiest teams at Tuesday’s trade deadline, and not only that. They should be buyers.

Sounds kind of crazy, right? New England’s loss Sunday in Nashville has it in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Thus, the Patriots are far closer to owning that top selection than they are making the playoffs this season let alone contending for a Super Bowl.

They are, in many senses, the prototypical seller ahead of the Nov. 5 deadline. They can still off pieces, too. There’s no need for K.J. Osborn to be in New England come Wednesday morning. Jonathan Jones might not be long for Foxboro, Mass., either.

But given the market, there’s no reason to believe the Patriots can make any sort of seismic move by selling off the players they’d sell. If anything, they should look to exploit the market if they can with an eye on the future. Are there teams that might need to pay a quarterback soon, and might need to trade off a potentially pricey piece to make the money work? With Brock Purdy’s contract situation, perhaps the 49ers — a team with whom the Patriots are quite familiar — make sense as a trade partner. New England should be flipping those sorts of rocks in the next 24 hours.

The Patriots’ biggest need right now is talent. Their roster just isn’t good. Ultimately, they must hit their draft picks moving forward. At some point, they need to start spending money. They have shown a willingness to be active in the trade market, and there’s nothing to say they have to wait for the offseason to do so.

Here’s the other kicker: When you talk about the draft and free agency, there’s not a lot of recent evidence to suggest they can thrive in either. Anyone could have drafted Drake Maye at No. 3. After that, the jury is still out. It’s hard to say apprehension about parting with draft picks should get in the way of a trade.

Free agency has been a point of contention since Tom Brady’s time. The Patriots traditionally haven’t splashed the pot with cash spending. Whether it’s money, weather, taxes or a general state of on-field ineptitude, persuading free agents to sign in New England has been a struggle. Trading for an established player — and then extending them — might be the Patriots’ best chance to add much-needed talent.

Wolf obviously knows how important trades can be for a franchise. His father, Ron Wolf, rebuilt the Packers with a bold trade for Brett Favre. The elder Wolf constructed those championship-caliber rosters with a handful of shrewd swaps.

The Patriots proved again Sunday what we already know: They are not good, and outside of Maye, there’s not much to bank on moving forward. New England must exercise every single option it has to accelerate this rebuild as much as it can. They should look to do just that before Tuesday afternoon.