N.E. trades former second-round pick Duke Dawson to Denver

Duke Dawson, a 2018 second-round pick out of Florida, was traded by the New England Patriots to the Denver Broncos on Friday.

Cornerback Duke Dawson’s star-crossed career as a New England Patriot officially came to an end on Friday, with ESPN citing sources that reported the Patriots had traded Dawson to the Denver Broncos. The Broncos will reportedly receive Dawson and New England’s 2020 seventh-round pick, and in exchange, will send their own 2020 sixth-round pick to the Pats.

On the surface, the transaction marks the end of a disappointing marriage between Dawson and New England. The Patriots selected the former Florida Gator with the 56th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, at the time hoping he could complement shutdown corner Stephon Gilmore and perhaps form one of the better defensive back tandems in the league.

Despite these high hopes (and Dawson’s impressive collegiate career), the experiment never really took. Dawson landed on injured reserve in early September of last season with a hamstring injury and remained there until mid-November. Even after being activated, however, Dawson remained inactive for the rest of the Patriots’ championship-winning season.

Though some of the rationale for Dawson failing to develop properly can be attributed to injuries, he also struggled to break through a terrific New England depth chart at corner. Jason McCourty was brought in last season and immediately became that starter opposite Gilmore; elsewhere, J.C. Jackson evolved into a remarkable third cornerback for the Pats, and Jonathan Jones essentially locked up the nickel corner role.

When New England drafted Vanderbilt alum Joejuan Williams with the 45th pick of this year’s draft, it essentially signaled to Dawson that if he intended to remain on this roster, he’d need to prove himself sooner rather than later. Dawson had all of OTAs, minicamp, training camp, and the preseason to show why he belonged on this roster moving forward, and unfortunately, he just didn’t do enough.

Complicating matters further was the emergence of Keion Crossen. Crossen stood out as one of the better players last night in a close preseason loss to the New York Giants, coming away with an interception and nearly having another two, as well.

Despite being drafted by the Patriots five rounds after Dawson last season, Crossen dramatically outplayed him both in 2018 and in the early stages of 2019. Crossen also illustrated his value to the Pats by playing terrifically on special teams, an area Dawson has not really made an impact on.

The Patriots should be just fine with the corners they have remaining on the roster. Although they essentially gave up a second-round pick for a sixth-round pick, at this point, it was better to get something back for Dawson as opposed to getting nothing by simply releasing him during roster cut-downs this weekend.