Patriots News 6/17: Roster Spot Looms, Trade Rumors Still Swirling
Follow us
Follow Us
🕑 Read Time: 8 minutes
Posted Under: Patriots News
HOME > Patriots Blog > Patriots News
Some New England Patriots News on this Tuesday:
1) We’ve got a long way to go before the start of training camp, and while the pre-camp roster seems relatively set, the club currently has a roster opening thanks to last week’s retirement of Wes Schweitzer.
How they might decide to fill it is certainly an interesting question. There are still various players in a state of unhappiness around the league, with each one sitting in a standoff with their current clubs.
Washington’s Terry McLaurin is one of those players, with the wideout frustrated and looking for a new deal coming off the 82 receptions, 1,096 yards, and 13 touchdowns he put up last season. That was McLaurin’s fifth consecutive 1,000-yard campaign, which played a key role in Washington’s playoff run.
More importantly, he’s obviously a key part of a Commanders roster that needs to try to keep its nucleus intact around second-year quarterback Jayden Daniels, who had an outstanding rookie season in 2024, largely thanks to his veteran wideout.
Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson is another unhappy player, with the edge rusher having watched Joe Burrow force the Bengals’ hand on offense after both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins each get contract extensions.
However, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that the two sides have resumed talks, which he said have delivered “some optimism” toward a new deal.
The Bengals appear to be a mess, and it feels like they’re a team teetering on implosion, with ownership seemingly being the biggest issue given a recent piece written by Mike Florio on ProFootballTalk.com. Keeping Hendrickson seems to be in their best interest, especially considering their defense ranked 25th in yards per game in 2024, including 36 sacks, also 25th in the NFL.
Joining McLaurin is Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt, with both sides dug in and no progress reportedly being made on that front. The Steelers reportedly want to extend him as he enters the final year of his deal, but Myles Garrett’s four-year, $160 million deal that averages $40 million per season appears to be the benchmark.
“You know, if they possibly can, they’re going to try and to make him the highest-paid edge rusher in the NFL,” said the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport recently. “Because we are still waiting on some details from these massive deals, it’s a little tricky to see where T.J. Watt belongs.”
McLaurin is obviously the biggest one that stands out, and it’s tough to say how Mike Vrabel might view Hendrickson or Watt on the other side of the ball. For McLaurin, this is his second go-around with his contract after the 30-year-old held out during his last set of negotiations before ultimately signing an extension several years ago
Still, these are just a few situations going on, with teams around the league – New England included – likely sitting back and watching them play out. It’s possible they’ve called and gauged each team’s trade interest, taking the temperature of things as they continue evaluating their own roster.
They don’t seem to be afraid of being aggressive on this front. We saw it last year when Brandon Aiyuk’s name popped up as a player looking for a trade. The Patriots wasted no time and immediately took a swing at the 49ers wideout, but ended up being rebuffed. For a team that was in need of an explosive player on offense, landing Aiyuk would have certainly given them a boost and provided the threat they lacked in 2024.
However, Aiyuk ultimately stayed in San Francisco and then, unfortunately, suffered a season-ending injury.
As they say, sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t make.
But Vrabel said last week that situations like these are ones the team has to pay attention to. He’s said repeatedly that they’re always looking to improve, and it sounds like they’re keeping everything on the table ahead of training camp.
“I think that we have to,” said Vrabel. “Again, it would go for the ability to acquire good players, good people that feel like they can help us at any position. I don’t know what those situations are throughout the league, but I’m all for trying to make the roster better any chance that we can.”
The names above are just disgruntled players, with McLaurin being the one name that is the most interesting.
Meanwhile, there are likely other guys around the league who are part of position groups that are stacked. That might open the door for teams possibly preferring to get something for them, rather than simply make them part of final roster cutdowns.
With a roster opening, maybe the Patriots explore a deal for someone before camp opens. Or maybe they simply scout guys who didn’t receive an invite, and they take a shot at bringing in another undrafted player. But it would be hard to imagine them not filling that spot by the time they reconvene, just over a month from now.
Once training camp opens, things tend to get real around the league, and it’s possible other names might pop up of guys who could want out. Needless to say, listening to Vrabel, it sounds like all options are on the table.
2) Speaking of disgruntled players, former Patriots tight end Jonnu Smith appears to be among that same list. He and the Dolphins are caught in the middle of a contract standoff, which has his name among potential guys who could be on the move.
His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, recently told WSVN that, “Nothing has been resolved yet,” and that the situation between the two sides is “still fluid.”
Smith is in the final year of the two-year deal he signed before last season, which saw him catch 88 passes for 884 yards along with 8 touchdowns, which was a career year for the former tight end.
He reportedly sat out the club’s mandatory minicamp last week, and his future definitely seems in question. Head coach Mike McDainel has said the club isn’t looking to move him, but it appears Miami – who is under intense pressure heading into this season – has yet another situation where their offense could take a hit if they don’t get something done.
Against the Patriots, Smith caught nine passes for 87 yards and a touchdown in their Week 12 match-up down in Miami, which was a 34-15 beatdown at Hard Rock Stadium.
It’s unlikely he’d be on New England’s radar. While Smith played for Vrabel in Tennessee, he didn’t flourish here under Josh McDaniels. After signing here in free agency ahead of the 2021 season, which was under the then-offensive coordinator, Smith caught 45 passes for just 294 yards and a touchdown, which was his lowest output in three seasons. He spent the majority of that year being kept in as a blocker, with fellow free agent signee Hunter Henry ending up with 51 receptions for 633 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Smith also caught 38 passes for just 245 yards a year later.
After leaving ahead of 2023 and joining the Falcons, he caught 50 passes for 582 yards and three touchdowns, and then 88 receptions for 884 yards with the Dolphins last season.
3) Scott Zolak said something interesting last week, talking about the overall difference in the vibe in the building this year compared to last year, and he feels they’ll be a better team now that Vrabel’s at the helm.
Zolak, who was part of the 2-14 team under former Patriots head coach Dick MacPherson back in 1992, recalled the contrast between MacPherson and Bill Parcells, who took over the team the following year in 1993. Zolak talked about what the difference has likely been from Vrabel to Jerod Mayo, especially given the difference in what he’s seen so far.
“I’ve been on a team that was somewhat talented but a bad team, a 2-14 team, MacPherson, and all that, we weren’t well coached,” said Zolak. “And then you get Bill Parcells and it’s like a culture shock.”
“It’s like what Keion White said yesterday, why would he say something like that? Because that’s what you feel. Like, ‘Holy crap, I’m being coached. I’m being told what to do with my job.'”
From what he’s heard so far, it’s been a completely different experience for the players this time around, which is a stark contrast to where they were a year ago.
“But everybody I talk to, it’s tempo. It’s tempo in the building,” said Zolak. “It’s workouts. It’s flow. It’s having fun. It’s entertaining. It’s coaching. It’s energy. The meetings go like that. And when Mike was hired, everyone was like, ‘Oh, a defensive-minded head coach. The league has changed. You need an offensive-minded guy.’ The way the staff being constructed, with Terrell Williams, and being ready for camp, you’re lucky you’ve got a defensive-minded head coach because he’s been able to cover their ass on defense for that.”
“You see some of the videos with him with the jersey on? Playing middle linebacker, he’s got the playsheet in his hand, he’s running here, he’s running there, instructing guys what to do? You ever see Mayo do that last year? And I’m not comparing the two, but it’s like, ‘O.K., that’s his plan, he knows what he’s doing.’ Guys are going to react to that.”
Having already experienced it himself, Zolak believes that the Patriots will absolutely win more than four games this year. The former QB feels Vrabel will definitely tip the scale there compared to how things played out last season.
“I’ve been on those teams,” said Zolak. “When we had Romeo [Crennell], we had Al Groh. You had Ray Perkins. We had legitimate NFL coaches, guys that have done it, guys who have won a Super Bowl elsewhere. They come in and say this, and, ‘O.K., where do I go?’ You get your ass in line real quick.”
“I don’t know how many wins it’s going to resonate to, but it sure as hell ain’t going to be four. I know that. They get to four in their sleep. They should have won more last year. They didn’t. But having that type of guy leading them, should, damnit, be another 2-3 wins for you in tight games. I’m sorry.”
4) Today marks the 25th year from when I registered the domain PatsFans.com, which set the stage for the site to quietly come online at the end of that year in 2000.
It’s definitely crazy to think that the ensuing 2001 campaign ended up being one of the most memorable seasons in franchise history, and a turning point for a team that ultimately became a dynasty.
All these years later, it’s amazing to think that the site remains and that it’s holding its own in a crowded internet landscape, and one that is shifting to all these massive platforms. There aren’t many of us who jumped into the fray back in the late 90s who are still around, with many other independent sites being drowned out in recent years.
Sites like this rely on the unbelievable support that’s been given over the years, which has helped keep this place up and running. For the people who have contributed content, I’m not going to try to list off all the names because there are too many to mention. I’ve had some incredible people among that group, and we’ve got a terrific set of writers who continue doing so, and I’m just so lucky to have had those opportunities along the way to get us to this point.
But our community remains something I’m both incredibly proud and thankful for, with many of the same members today being part of the journey to get to this point. I’ve been lucky to work with some incredible moderators since this all started, and they’re the biggest reason why our forum remains a great environment to talk football.
I was even lucky enough to be there for the team’s first-ever Patriots game played at Gillette Stadium (a preseason game) thanks to a member of our forum who was kind enough to invite me along.
Needless to say, the relationships I’ve been lucky enough to make are what drives me to keep pushing forward, and I can’t express enough how much that’s meant. Especially considering how significantly the landscape has changed in the last quarter century.
This site isn’t a company or a massive entity. It’s literally just a website hosted on a server that I do in my spare time, and I do 100% of the technical part of things to try and keep us going and push us forward. It looks a little bigger than it is, with the goal to keep it competitive with those larger sites. I’m a naturally competitive person, but as I’ve gotten older, it’s certainly become harder to maintain the pace I’ve been on over the last two decades.
When I started this place, I was in my early 20s. I’ll be 50 later this year. Getting home from work and staying up late isn’t quite as easy these days.
With things changing so drastically online, please consider where you spend your time. Instead of supporting massive entities, take a look at the sites or communities and who owns/runs them. Before you commit your time, try and give it to site owners who have been around long before all these huge sites that are now drowning them out. Because all of us certainly need the support now more than ever.
So, for all of you who are a part of this place or read anything myself or any of the guys post, thank you. I certainly never imagined still doing this all these years later, and you’re all the reason why I’ll hopefully still be doing it years from now.
And hopefully, if all goes well, maybe the player who joined the team ahead of that storybook year and is coaching it now will kick off another run starting this fall.
From our archive - this week all-time:
April 10 - April 25 (Through 26yrs)
Join 2,000+ fans getting exclusive stats, analysis, and insights delivered straight to their inbox every week. Never miss a play.
Ian, I often talk to my children about watching Steve Grogan set the team record for rushing touchdowns by a QB (12) and complain about the benches in Shcaffer Stadium. In short, a lifelong, mostly healthy obsession with Patriots football. This includes rabid consumption of a wide variety of team related media for a number of decades. While some may debate the use of time, it does make me fully qualified to thank you and folks like Steve and Mark for your work on behalf of all of your readers. Here are a few points: First and foremost you are… Read more »
Thanks, Brent. It’s been a long road and I’ve tried to model my writing style after guys like Reiss and a couple others, while trying to focus on making whatever I write interesting. I’ve always worked under the premise of, “Would I want to read it?” Someone I talked to many years ago when I first started writing pointed that out, and it stuck with me. To your point, the challenge is obviously trying to alter the titles to be more engaging, because obviously page views are important given that without them, no one will read them and the site… Read more »
Ian congratulations. I hope this patsteam does well and pats fan.com continues along with it. I meandered into Patsfan and stayed via frustration with the broader Boston media. Patsfan sticks to facts and offers an opinion but stays out of the click bait drama fiction lane. Iām thankful for that and your team. Thank you
Appreciate that, it certainly means a lot. I more or less keep my head down and keep working hoping for this place to turn a corner traffic-wise when it comes to the blog, and the best I’ve been able to do is to at least keep us holding our own. But comments like yours definitely help keep me going, so thank you. š
Talks of McLaurin, Watt, Hendrickson from the Boson media to me reeks of quiet time click bait. I believe the story origins are media contrived. They’re made up. No facts that the pats are on the phone with WAS, CIN or PIT. And getting guys that are at their peak career salary cost, that would be looking for likely $40M/season is to me dumb. This Pats team has money now, but only short term. As soon as Drake Maye, Gonzalez’s and others contracts come up, the pats will be in cap constraint mode, and that is without trying to take… Read more »