It’s official. The New England Patriots stood pat at Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, and the groans from fans in Foxboro and beyond will definitely be heard by Mike Vrabel and the new regime.
The Patriots felt like a team poised to add this year, especially after collecting added draft capital in previous deals involving Kyle Dugger and Keion White. No one expected their rebuilding team to trade multiple first-round picks for Sauce Gardner, but a more low-key move for help at edge, wide receiver, or running back was widely expected.
It didn’t happen, leaving fans puzzled over why their 7-2 team wouldn’t look to add a piece ahead of this year’s playoff push.
So, let’s search for some answers.
The big one is the mantra that’s been building in the Patriots’ locker room since their galvanizing win over the Buffalo Bills. It was delivered perfectly by wide receiver Stefon Diggs inside the stadium he once called home.
“We all we got. We’re all we need. I love you boys. We’re on to the next game.”
Vrabel has this team believing. That he wouldn’t want to disrupt a good thing by adding outside talent does make sense.
There’s also some precedent here from 2024, when a surprise team with a young quarterback went all-in at the trade deadline — only to pay the price one year later with a roster that’s too old and falling apart at the seams.
The New England Patriots might’ve learned from the failures of the 2024 Washington Commanders
Again, it’s fair for fans to feel frustrated over Tuesday’s result. It's also important to remember that the Patriots are way ahead of schedule in 2025. Vrabel just overhauled about half of the roster this offseason, and the retooling should continue in 2026 and beyond.
As Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal pointed out during his weekly midday spot on 98.5 The Sports Hub, last year’s Washington Commanders team proved to be a cautionary tale.
The 2024 Commanders had a new head coach, Dan Campbell, and a young, ascending quarterback, Jayden Daniels. They were in the same spot as this year’s Patriots team entering trade deadline week, too, sitting at 7-2 after winning just four games the year prior.
General manager Adam Peters decided to hit the pause button on his team’s rebuild at the deadline, shipping three draft picks — a third, fourth, and sixth — to New Orleans in exchange for star cornerback Marshon Lattimore and a fifth-round pick.
Lattimore was bothered by a hamstring issue, performed poorly, and wound up getting cooked by the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. The lost draft capital in that deal definitely played a role in the Commanders trading even more draft capital for veterans Deebo Samuel and Laremy Tunsil in March — “striking while the iron’s hot,” as Bedard put it — and they’re left with a team that’s too old, banged up, and now falling back down the standings with four consecutive losses.
The Patriots literally took the opposite approach this year, selling off pieces like Dugger, White and Ja’Lynn Polk to add future draft capital. They passed on adding an impact player like edge rusher Jaelan Phillips, for example, who would challenge current starters Harold Landry and K'Lavon Chaisson for snaps right away.
New England is clearly building something this year. For better or worse, the new regime appears bullish on building the team gradually, avoiding a potential misstep that could stunt the current team’s rapid growth.