Three years ago, the New England Patriots made a potential franchise-changing move. Despite some understandable concerns, they still took UNC's Drake Maye with the No. 3 pick in the first round of a draft that saw four signal-callers taken in the top-10.
Notably, Michigan's J.J. McCarthy even cracked the top-five talks at one point, and the Patriots even hosted him for a top-10 visit. Then, with the top three prospects — including Maye — off the board, the Minnesota Vikings moved up to No. 10 to get him.
Fast forward to today, and the Vikings seem to have given up on him. He's now a clear-cut trade candidate for a quarterback-needy team looking for a reclamation project. Fortunately, it looks like the Patriots won't have anything to do with that.
There's no room in the AFC East for J.J. McCarthy
Shortly after the news broke that McCarthy lost the QB1 competition to Kyler Murray, Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox listed five potential trade destinations for him, and — unsurprisingly — he didn't include any AFC East team.
Knox cited the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and San Francisco 49ers as his best potential landing spots. Truth be told, those would all make much more sense than any of the Patriots' divisional rivals.
The Buffalo Bills are all set with an MVP-caliber quarterback in Josh Allen, and there's no incentive to trade for a first-round rookie who's eligible for a big raise in his fifth season just to have him as a backup.
The Miami Dolphins signed Malik Willis to a three-year deal worth $67.5 million. That move can backfire tremendously and comically, but they'll likely ride it out with him for at least a year or two before pivoting.
As for the New York Jets, they can definitely use as much help as they can get in the quarterback department. However, they already have their own reclamation project in Cade Klubnik, and they have a plethora of first-round picks to potentially get their quarterback of the future in 2027.
McCarthy has struggled with injuries and has been wildly erratic since entering the league. However, he still has the physical attributes that could make a team talk themselves into giving him an opportunity. Renowned quarterback guru — and former Patriots draft pick — Kevin O'Connell couldn't work his magic with him, but someone else might.
As bad as he looked in the Twin Cities, not having to worry about a top-10 pick with franchise-player potential should always be a win in any team's book.
Of course, the Patriots should love their chances against anyone else in the division, but the last time a passed-over quarterback from Michigan with a chip on his shoulder played in the AFC East, it didn't end well for the other teams — and we're not talking about Chad Henne.
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