Should the Patriots take from the defense to fix the offense?
One tactic that the New England Patriots could deploy is using some of their defensive players to help fix their offense for 2023. New England had one of the seven best defensive units in the NFL last year but largely had a bottom five offense.
What if I told you that, in 2023, the Patriots could have the 12th or so best offense and 14th or so best offense. If they were a more balanced team, would then finish with a better record? I think so.
Hiring Bill O’Brien as the OC to replace Matt Patricia was a solid move, but there is more work to be done. Besides perhaps targeting offensive players in the upcoming NFL Draft, there may be a ton of offensive players on the trade market this offseason.
It might be to the Patriots advantage to sniff around potential deals to see if they can find some talent for the offensive line and perhaps an extra receiver or two.
One scenario I could see playing out is if New England is in talks with a team or two about acquiring an offensive playmaker, perhaps someone at wide receiver.
What if, instead of draft capital, the team would want a player instead?
For example, let’s say for example that the Texans and Patriots are discussing a deal for Brandin Cooks.
What if the Texans come back and ask for someone like Kyle Dugger in a potential deal? Let’s say that the Texans would offer Brandin Cooks and a mid-late round draft pick for Kyle Dugger?
Or, a different scenario could be a team perhaps wanting, oh, I don’t know, Christian Barmore in a deal?
What if the New Orleans Saints asked for Christian Barmore in a deal for Ryan Ramczyk?
There has been nothing to indicate that any of this would happen, but players included in deals for other players is possible, and if the Patriots could potentially leverage that into helping to fix the offense, then I don’t see an issue with that.
Obviously we don’t want to see the team parting with multiple starters on defense, but there could be an attractive trade piece that could be dealt.