Noah Fant:

The Patriots return home to Foxboro and will finally…it seems, get their scheduled game with Denver in the books. Are you sick of talk of COVID-19 filling our football timelines? […]

The Patriots can trade up or down, So we’ll go with a commonly believed scenario that they try to trade up to get a playmaker that they sorely need.

Besides Gronkowski, maybe… the position consists of Jacob Hollister, Ryan Izzo, Stephen Anderson, and the newly signed Matt Lacosse.

Linebackers eligible for the franchise tag are getting $15.4 million in 2019. That puts Hightower among the bargains for the league.