Patriots surprisingly trade Demaryius Thomas to Jets

The New England Patriots have sent Demaryius Thomas to the division-rival New York Jets in exchange for a 2021 sixth-round pick.

It’s been a dizzying circus of transactions at wide receiver for the New England Patriots these past few seasons. After circling through a number of former No.1 or No. 2 wideouts in 2017, 2018, and 2019 (Jordan Matthews, Eric Decker, Brandin Cooks, etc.), the Patriots have reportedly traded Demaryius Thomas to the New York Jets for a 2021 sixth-round draft pick, per an ESPN report.

The move is almost surely in direct correlation to the team’s acquisition of Antonio Brown, the former Oakland Raider who spent the first nine years of his NFL career all with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brown was traded during the offseason to the Raiders but never played in a game, instead finding himself released by the team after a series of controversial and tumultuous events.

Now that Brown is officially a Patriot, it appears that head coach Bill Belichick doesn’t see a role for Thomas moving forward.

It’s a curious turn of events for a team that has found itself in the center of most early-season NFL headlines this fall. Demaryius Thomas suffered an Achilles tear while with the Houston Texans last December, and was himself released before signing with the Patriots back in March. Originally a casualty of camp cutdowns, Thomas was re-signed to the 53-man roster when rookie first-round draft pick N’Keal Harry was placed on IR.

Thomas made his preseason debut against the New York Giants just a week prior to the start of the regular season. He certainly turned some heads while doing so, catching seven passes for 87 yards and two touchdowns – and that production came with rookie quarterback Jarrett Stidham at the helm, not Tom Brady.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t enough to earn Thomas a spot on the Pats’ game-day roster this past Sunday. Thomas was inactive with a hamstring injury, though it wasn’t clear just how or when that ailment occurred. Some speculated his absence from the team’s plans against the Steelers was more precautionary than anything, but now it’s fair to wonder just how long Belichick may have deemed him to be expendable.

It should be noted, too, that division rivals rarely do business with one another. The Patriots also orchestrated a trade with Buffalo at the end of August for center Russell Bodine; although Bodine was later released, it was still a bit surprising to see the Bills and the Patriots doing business.

The Patriots and the Jets have even more bad blood between them than the Pats and Bills, thanks in no small part to the Spygate controversy, as well as a rift between Belichick and former assistant Eric Mangini. Seeing the two AFC East foes conduct business at any point is rare; seeing them do so during the actual regular season is an even stranger sight to behold.

Thomas is now reunited with Jets head coach Adam Gase, who was his offensive coordinator back in Denver when both men were still with the Broncos. As anyone who saw their offense perform in Week 1 will attest, the Jets desperately needed help at wideout… so this move makes a ton of sense for Gang Green.

For the Patriots? It’s a bit of a head-scratcher.

After Sunday night’s demolition job of the Steelers, no one can say the Patriots needed Demaryius Thomas on their active roster. Of course, you could say the exact same thing about Antonio Brown, too.

And while Brown is definitely better at this stage of his career than Thomas, it’s curious that New England held onto less-proven commodities at the position like Phillip Dorsett, Jakobi Meyers, and Gunner Olszewski, when they could have kept Thomas, who has a long history as a top receiver in the NFL – and who looked pretty back-to-normal in that preseason loss to the Giants.

The compensation package New England is receiving in the trade is also a bit peculiar. While Thomas is indeed a 31-year-old receiver past his prime coming off a major injury, a sixth-round draft pick two years in the future seems a bit low nevertheless, given what the world saw in his return to action less than two weeks ago.