While it can be a fool’s errand to predict what direction a team might go at the NFL trade deadline, with a 2-7 record and the inside track on the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, it wouldn’t be surprising for the Patriots to be sellers as the Tuesday afternoon deadline looms.
In the last week-plus, head coach Jerod Mayo has been reticent to discuss trade hypotheticals involving his team, saying a lot of the talk has been “nonsense” and “frustrating” to deal with.
“To me, it’s silly,” Mayo told Scott Zolak during a pregame radio interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub on Sunday. “A lot of that stuff is nonsense. It’s frustrating sometimes because you always want to be very transparent with the player and let them know; they hear it.
“If a report comes out that is absolutely 100 percent false, and you have to discuss it with that person, it just takes more time and more space.”
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Given the way things have played out over the course of the season, it was notable that wide receiver KJ Osborn was a conspicuously healthy scratch against the Titans. And while fellow receiver Tyquan Thornton was on the injury report on the days leading up to last weekend’s game, the decision to make him inactive could be a sign the pass catcher is on the trade market.
On Monday, Mayo said making Osborn a healthy scratch against Tennessee was a personnel decision, saying the job of the coaching staff was to “put the players out there that we think are going to help us win that game.” The head coach did praise Osborn for his “energy” on the sideline during Sunday’s game, particularly when it came to his reaction after a third-quarter catch from DeMario Douglas.
“A guy like that, it’s all about the team,” Mayo said of Osborn, who has seven catches for 57 yards in six games. “It’s not about him as an individual. And we need more people like him.”
It’ll be a challenge to figure out how GM Eliot Wolf might negotiate his first trade deadline at the helm of the Patriots, but it is worth noting that he hasn’t been shy about trading potentially impactful defensive players. In August, he dealt pass rusher Matthew Judon to Atlanta for a third-round pick in 2025. And late last month, New England traded outside linebacker Joshua Uche, shipping him to Kansas City for a sixth-round pick in 2026.
Moving forward, other defensive veterans whose names have been linked to a possible trade include veteran cornerback Jonathan Jones and safety Kyle Dugger.
Last month, Jones was asked about his mind-set as the trade deadline approached. One of the last links to the Patriots’ win in Super Bowl LIII, he was philosophical about what the future might hold.
“Control what you can control,” he said. “I just show up to work every day, just try to do the same thing, same thing I’ve always done. Whatever happens, happens. I just love going to work and playing football.”
“The guys in there understand professional football and they understand this time of the year,” Mayo said in late October. “From our perspective as an organization, we’re always trying to get better, whether that’s to bring players in, or addition through subtraction. We have to both look in the short term and also in the long term.”
Christopher Price can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @cpriceglobe.
