Patriots: Stealing one player from every AFC East opponent

If the New England Patriots were allowed to steal one player from each of their three division rivals, who would they take?

It’s a tough time to be a football fan these days.

No OTAs, no rookie minicamps, no mandatory minicamps. What was already one of the slower portions of the calendar year for NFL aficionados just got even slower thanks to the current world health crisis.

With extra time on our hands, why not have a little bit of fun?

For the sake of argument, let’s say the New England Patriots were allowed to add one player from each of their three division rivals in the AFC East: the Buffalo Bills, the Miami Dolphins, and the New York Jets.

In this exercise, the Patriots don’t have to surrender anything for these players, but they also can’t use the players as trade chips to acquire talent from another team elsewhere.

So, for example, as much as it might make sense to choose All-Pro safety Jamal Adams from the Jets — especially given the recent reports that Adams desires to be traded — he wouldn’t necessarily be our top choice for this piece based off need alone.

His talent is unquestioned, but New England has already committed a lot of money to their current safeties (Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung, and Adrian Phillips). Plus, they just used their top draft pick on Kyle Dugger, another safety.

While it might still make sense to choose Adams and try to move him again for either draft pick compensation or for another star player from another team that fills a bigger need like tight end or pass rusher, that’s not the point of this exercise.

Based off current roster need alone, who are the three players the Patriots would take today from each of their division rivals and insert into the starting lineup?