Patriots News 7/1: Trade Changes Outlook in 2025 Match-Ups For Vrabel’s Team
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Some Patriots news and notes for this morning:
1) Things got a little interesting on Monday, with both Miami and Pittsburgh pulling off a trade that will certainly affect the Patriots in 2025.
Adam Schefter reported the deal, which saw a swap of multiple players in addition to a couple of draft picks. For the Steelers, they traded safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and a 2027 5th-round pick to Miami in exchange for defensive back Jalen Ramsey, tight end Jonnu Smith, and a 2027 7th-round pick.
The Dolphins had been locked in a contentious battle with Smith, who was coming off a career season in 2024 where he caught 88 passes for 884 yards and 8 touchdowns. The reception and yardage total were the best of the 29-year-old’s career, with his touchdown total tying the previous career-best 8 he had in Tennessee back in 2020.
Smith had previously skipped Miami’s minicamp due to his contract, with his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, calling the negotiations at the time “still fluid.” But back at the beginning of June, things changed. With Smith looking for a raise beyond the $4.8 million he was slated to make in 2025, Miami reportedly spoke to Pittsburgh as a possible trade partner for him.
Rosenhaus went on TV Sunday night and reiterated that Smith preferred to remain in Miami, but one day later, he’s obviously headed to Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile, the Dolphins do get a little tougher on defense. They added a talented safety in Fitzpatrick, who returns to their secondary after having been dealt away previously by the club to Pittsburgh back in 2019. But Smith’s departure is one most Patriots fans likely aren’t sorry to see happen. In two games last season, he finished with 14 catches for 149 yards along with a touchdown, including moving the chains on 10 of his receptions.
Seeing Ramsey depart is also a positive for New England. He finished third on the team in tackles with five in their first meeting in 2024, along with 2 passes defended in Week 5, and then followed that up with 4 more tackles, another pass defended, and two quarterback hits in the second meeting in Week 12. Things apparently were incredibly tense with Ramsey and head coach Mike McDaniel, with Miami Herald writer Omar Kelly reporting that the two were not on speaking terms prior to the trade.
New England will see both him and Smith again in week three in September against Pittsburgh, but that’s still an improvement from having to face both twice per season.
For the Dolphins, that leaves them in a difficult spot on offense at tight end. They currently have just former Patriot Pharaoah Brown on their roster, with Julian Hill, Tanner Conner, 2024 undrafted free agent Hayden Rucci, and 2025 undrafted free agent Jalin Conyers remaining in that group.
Hill was graded as Miami’s worst offensive player in 2024 by PFF, while also logging nine penalties for the club last season. Conner, who was undrafted in 2022, has reportedly made progress and had a terrific spring. But Rucci, who is the son of former Patriot Todd Rucci, and Conyers remain question marks.
Miami is said to be in a pivotal year for head coach Mike McDaniel and GM Chris Grier, with both in need of a deep playoff run heading into 2025.
As for Pittsburgh, they just got a little more dangerous, clearly trying to add pieces to a team that now has Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. This is likely Rodgers’ last stop, and the 41-year-old claims to be all in on football, with the Steelers set on trying to make the most of whatever he has left.
For now, New England will face both teams in back-to-back weeks on the early part of the 2025 Patriots Schedule, with a trip to Miami up first in Week 2, followed by a visit from the Steelers the next week. Both are 1:00 pm kickoffs.
2) Looking at the available names of free agents out there, it’s surprising to see Matthew Judon’s name still among that list at this point of the offseason.
ESPN’s Matt Bowen posted an entry talking about the latest remaining free agents, while ranking them individually. Judon’s name is out there, with Bowen ranking him as the 9th best player still available.
Bowen has defensive back Rasul Douglas as the top name, with wideout Amari Cooper (#2), CB Asante Samuel Jr. (#3), CB Mike Hilton (#4), WR Keenan Allen (#5), G Brandon Scherff (#6), Edge Za’Darius Smith (#7), and Edge Jadevenon Clowney (#8), behind him.
After being traded to Atlanta before last season, Judon had an up-and-down performance in 2024. He ultimately finished the season with 5.5 sacks along with 9 quarterback hits.
The deal by New England ultimately landed them the 77th overall pick (Round 3) in this year’s 2025 Patriots draft. The Patriots then parlayed that selection into Georgia center Jared Wilson (95th overall), LSU linebacker Bradyn Swinson (146th overall), and a 2026 4th-round pick, with the Patriots trading back twice from 77th, moving back initially to 85th, and then again before they ultimately took Wilson with the 95th overall selection.
3) Rob Ninkovich, Rob Gronkowski, and Julian Edelman recently had an interesting conversation when it came to former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.
While the Falcons themselves are normally the target of the 28-3 jokes, clearly referring to New England’s incredible comeback Super Bowl win to finish off the 2016 season, Ryan was obviously the quarterback in that game.
As Ninkovich pointed out, it has to be a miserable existence for Ryan, who Ninkovich said people still ask the former Falcons QB about that game each time he’s out in public.
“Do you ever think about the other side, how terrible that must feel for them?” said Ninkovich. “Matt Ryan, anytime he does anything, they ask him about that. It’s like at a point, I would just be like, Shut the f*** up.”
Gronkowski admitted that it definitely has to be tough on Ryan, who finished 7-of-8 for 115 yards and a touchdown in the first half of that game against New England, with Atlanta taking a 21-3 lead into the locker room at the half. One of the Falcons’ first-half touchdowns included an 82-yard pick-six against Tom Brady with just over 2-minutes remaining in the second quarter.
In the second half, Ryan didn’t even play that badly. He finished 10-of-15 for 169 yards with a touchdown and was sacked three times, with New England’s defense carrying the load as the offense battled its way back into the game.
“He had like a hell of a career,” said Gronkowski. “He made so much money, threw for so many touchdowns, and all people bring up to him is, ‘Hey, what happened in that game versus the Patriots in the Super Bowl?’ That sucks.”
As for Ninkovich, he still feels bad for the guys who went through that, although he’s glad he came out on the right side of things.
“I wish they would have won a Super Bowl for those guys, right?” said Ninkovich. “Now, I’m happy that we were able to make that happen and win that football game, but I sometimes have a little bit of empathy for those guys that didn’t win a Super Bowl.”
4) The Patriots announced when the highly anticipated episode two of Forged In Foxborough will drop, and it appears to be coming a little sooner than we thought.
A recent edition of Patriots All Access aired an ad that announced a two-episode broadcast on August 3rd on TV 38, but the team posted on X on Tuesday that the second episode of the series will drop first on YouTube and Patriots.com on Friday, 7/18, which also included a one-minute trailer for the episode.
That comes just six days before the start of training camp, with the first public practice set for 7/23 on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium.
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Jonnu Smith – I believe he struggled here in New England as the offensive system was to complex for him. That’s fully my opin as I don’t recall football analysts ever coming out and saying it. But you could see the pats ran only a few select route type for Smith. Mostly dump off outlet passes behind the LOS. Screens behind the LOS. and a few other short passes downfield past the LOS. Basic/simple stuff where Smith had some RAC possibilities. Accordingly, Smith wasn’t on the field a lot given limitations. He was healthy. He was paid a ton. He… Read more »