My slant on this:
Derby was a good looking prospect for the Pats in preseason, athletic, effective. He's making a position change, had a red shirt rookie year and legitimately beat out Clay Harbor for the #3 TE role. Good young TE with upside. Not (yet) anywhere close to Gronk or Bennett, but who knows what his ceiling is?
He's recently won a few team awards for Practice Player of the Week, so he's a hard working kid with the respect of the staff.
Lots to like.
But we all know BB is an unsentimental GM and a value hawk. A 5th round pick for an unblooded hard working kid that they're grooming is a pretty good offer.
I think it's a tricky thing managing the bottom of the active roster. Realize that BB just waived Anthony Johnson hoping to clear him to the PS-- that's another good young player who's been doing well for us at a position of need. Geno Grissom has been on the PS for a good chunk of the season, recently activated.
There's a game involved in managing a roster of players that is 60+ good players deep when the roster can only carry 53 of them. About seven of them at any time could just disappear, in exchange for nothing.
And although Derby is an injury away from being really important for us, and a promising long term prospect to boot, recognize that the ENTIRE ROSTER is like that.
Remember all the good young CBs who we had in training camp that we had to waive (for no compensation) because we couldn't carry any more. And that was before BB traded for Rowe. Talent is so good Cyrus Jones has been healthy inactive for consecutive weeks.
Grugier-Hill, too, victim of talent depth, and now playing for... the Eagles, iirc. Lost for no comp, and not because he didn't look good.
There is an entire cohort of good young players on the fringe of the roster, who will be good players in the league: Jonathan Jones, Ted Karras, DJ Foster...Derby too...these guys have survived a number of cut downs with tough competition. They're all assets for the team and one injury away from being even more important to the team. But they're also in the very fringe of getting waived to the PS to make room for an injury replacement, on any given day, and through no fault of their own.
If another GM were to step forward with a 5th round offer for ANY of these guys, of course BB is going to listen. Because he's got other quality and promising kids in the pipeline who deserve that roster spot too.
With all the depth, BB the GM needs to liquidate some of it and convert it into more portable assets that he can spin forward, or risk losing even more of them on the waiver wire for nothing.
Derby flashed enough in the preseason to attract the attention of the Broncos. Good for him, good for them, good for us too in the long run. And it can help ease some of the density at the bottom of the roster, made worse after acquiring Mingo, Rowe and Van Noy.
I am really sorry to see Derby go, he was a binky for me this offseason. But this is good business.
Hopefully we can mine more like him over time, and I'll be rooting for him in Denver, except when he's playing the Pats.