Friday Patriots Notebook 4/19: News and Notes
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Some Patriots news and notes on this Friday:
After seeing fellow receiver DeVonta Smith receive a three-year extension from the club, Philadelphia Eagles wideout A.J. Brown made some noise on Thursday to seemingly express his frustration about not receiving one himself.
The veteran receiver unfollowed the Eagles on Instagram, and instead followed both New England Patriots QB Jacoby Brissett and receiver K.J. Osborn, along with changing his profile picture to former New England QB, Tom Brady.
That obviously got the masses fired up locally here in New England, which got the speculation going on whether or not it meant that Brown might be potentially interested in becoming a Patriot.
Some believed that the move may have signaled a return by Brady to Foxboro, with he and Brown potentially making some noise in the AFC East. However, that wasn’t the case.
“This isn’t the sort of roster that Tom Brady would come back to to begin with,” said Albert Breer on an appearance Thursday night on NBC Sports Boston. “I think if Tom Brady was going to come back, it’s going to be to some loaded roster with a QB injury later in the year. And even that might not be likely.”
Brown later added a post where he said he didn’t think changing his profile picture to “the greatest QB ever would cause controversy,” seemingly trying to quiet some of the chatter. However, the move to unfollow his team and follow two Patriots players was certainly a bit eyebrow-raising.
Breer said that he did inquire about the Brown trade rumors, and he said when he inquired, the Eagles immediately shut that down.
“I did have to run this up the flag poll with a few different people,” said Breer. “Philadelphia has gotten inquiries on A.J. Brown and they have shut them all down and told other teams that he is not available.”
“They told all those teams, call back next year when it’s much easier to trade him,” joked 98.5 Radio Host Marc Bertrand, who also appeared on the program. “He’ll be another year older and the cap hit will be minimal next year, so ‘Call us back in twelve months’ is what they said.”
One interesting bit that came out of the interview was the fact Breer did admit later that New England was among teams who did inquire about the disgruntled receiver, which is certainly expected given their current situation at that position.
He also pointed out that while some will dismiss what Brown did as meaningless, Breer did point out that sometimes trades do come to fruition due to circumstances like this one. He cited the Diggs trade from the Vikings to the Bills as one example.
“The Stephon Diggs trade from Minnesota to Buffalo in 2020 was actually prompted by a Tweet, so that’s not unprecedented before. The Bills actually saw Stephon Diggs Tweet something by Kirk Cousins and were like, ‘Oh?’ [They] picked up the phone, and by the end of the day, he was traded.”
“So these things sometimes mean something. I just don’t think it means anything in this case.”
Breer went on to mention that while Philadelphia may have shut this one down, things can certainly still change. There are still teams with other needs who do have what he called a ‘surplus’ of players on offense, which might see an opportunity come at some point for New England.
“A lot of these teams have surpluses too, so things can change over time,” said Breer. “Like the Bengals have Tee Higgins, hey also have Jamar Chase. The Eagles have A.J. Brown, they also just re-signed DeVonta Smith. The 49ers have Brandon Ayuk, they also have Deebo Samuel and George Kittle. So those are the sorts of situations where you’d be looking to dig these things out.”
Phil Perry also wonders if something could happen next week where a team has a talented offensive player slip to them that they weren’t expecting, which could suddenly make someone available for the Patriots to make a move.
“I wonder if there’s anything that happens on night one of the draft that maybe makes one of these teams a little bit more willing to part ways with one of these stars,” said Perry. “If it so happens that a receiver unexpectedly falls to the 49ers that they just love – maybe it’s Brian Thomas from LSU – they absolutely love this guy. They think he’s one of the six best players in the draft, and he got to them all the way at the bottom of the first round. Maybe they actually take that guy and now all of a sudden, Brandon Ayuk is for sale because they do have a surplus, as Bert mentioned.”
Patriots Director of Scouting, Eliot Wolf, was asked on Thursday during his pre-draft press conference if he felt like he was on a “trial” ahead of this draft, as he hasn’t officially been given a long-term role just yet. Wolf downplayed that notion, and said he’s focused on the task at hand. “I haven’t thought about it that way, that’s an interesting way to think about it,” he said. “Since I’ve been given this opportunity to work with these people, I’ve just kind of put my head down and tried to do things that I feel like are the best for the Patriots.” … Wolf kept the door open for the Patriots to move out of the #3 spot next week, admitting there are holes in the roster that need to be filled. “We’re open for business in the first round and in every round,” he said. “We have some holes we feel like we need to fill in the draft and you know, we’re a draft and develop team. The more picks we have, the better. But if there’s an opportunity to move up and strike if the board kind of recommends it, then we won’t be afraid to pull the trigger on that, either.” … Wolf was asked about the left tackle spot, and newcomer Chukwuma Okorafor got a bit of an endorsement. “If the season started tomorrow, I think it would be Okorafor,” he said when asked who he envisions at left tackle. “But that is probably more of a question for Coach Mayo.” … Wolf also said the club has taken calls about a potential trade for their #3 selection. “Yeah, there have been conversations that have taken place,” adding, “We spend time on all those [trade] scenarios.”
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