Seahawks Trade $38 Million All-Pro to Patriots as Drake Maye Help in Mock Draft

In their second straight 4-13 season, as difficult as they were to find, the New England Patriots did have a couple of bright spots — and none was brighter than the performance of rookie quarterback and No. 3 overall draft pick Drake Maye. At age 22, the former North Carolina Tar Heel started 12 games — taking over the No. 1 quarterback role from veteran Jacoby Brissett in Week Six — and proceeded to complete 66.6 percent of his 338 pass attempts, for 2,276 yards and 15 touchdowns.

But Maye clearly needed help. Patriots receivers dropped 25 passes last season, ranking them a mediocre 15th out of the league’s 32 receiving corps. If Patriots receivers had caught those passes, the team’s completion rate would have finished at 69.4 percent, rather than 64.7 percent. New England receivers also had trouble getting open downfield. Their 34 catches for 20 yards or more ranked dead last in the NFL. Their mere three completions of 40 yards or more was also last, tied with three other teams.

One of those three 40-plus yard passes was actually thrown by backup Joe Milton III, a 48-yard touchdown pass in the final game of the season.

Patriots Receivers Did Not Carry Their Weight

Patriots receivers added just 1,701 yards after catch, ranking them sixth from the bottom in the NFL. In the final analysis, Maye was able to put together a season that earned him a Pro Bowl bid as an alternate even with his receivers simply not carrying their weight.

But in a new mock draft by the USA Today Patriotswire, the Patriots elect to use some valuable draft capital to go out and get help for Maye. The USA Today mock draft has New England giving up its second-round pick, 38th overall — a valuable commodity.

The pick goes to the Seattle Seahawks in the mock draft scenario. The Seahawks send back two-time Pro Bowl, six-year veteran D.K. Metcalf, a 2020 second team All-Pro. The mock draft by Patriotswire expert Jordy McElroy appears to ignore Metcalf’s recent statements throwing cold water on the possibility that he would relocate to New England, which he called “not a desirable place in my opinion.”

Metcalf a ‘Dominant Offensive Weapon’

Metcalf made it clear that his issues are with the New England region, not the Patriots who he called “a great organization, though.” Of course, Metcalf does not have a no-trade clause in his current contract, so other than staging a holdout, there is nothing he could do to prevent a trade to the Patriots.

“The Patriots could have added more offensive line help with this pick, but the opportunity to come away with a two-time Pro Bowl receiver was too enticing to turn down. D.K. Metcalf is a dominant offensive weapon on the outside, and the Patriots are severely lacking in a vertical threat to keep opposing defenses honest,” McElroy wrote, explaining why the Patriots made the trade in the mock draft. “The Seattle Seahawks have serious cap issues entering the 2025 season, and they could be looking to move off Metcalf’s contract to fix the other trouble spots on their roster. Metcalf is still only 27 years old and in the prime of his career.”

Metcalf’s salary cap total for 2025 stands at $31.8 million. But the Patriots with more than $120 million in cap space can afford him with plenty of room to spare.

Other mock drafts see the Patriots handling their second round pick differently. The Fansided Musket Fire blog has New England taking edge rusher Princely Umanmielen out of Ole Miss. The SB Nation blog Pats Pulpit sees the Patriots going for Minnesota offensive tackle Aireontae Ersery with the 38th overall pick. Pro Football Network also projects that the Patriots will take an edge rusher with their second-round selection, but this time the player is Shemar Stewart, who PFN says “possesses an athletic profile we haven’t seen since J.J. Watt.”

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin