Robert Kraft is a business man. Professional football is first and foremost a business.
Isn’t the lead tenet of business to buy low and sell high?
With that, we embark on a New England Patriots excursion to the land of common sense, with a layover in the world of reality.
You can finagle every angle you wish this spring.
Overpay and purchase every free-agent on the market. Have both QBs (Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders) go 1-2, so New England, at No. 4, is in line for one of the two game-breakers on the board, Penn State’s Abdul Carter and Colorado’s Travis Hunter.
Heck, Mike Vrabel could even dupe some wayward franchise (Read: The New York Jets) to overpay for that No. 4 and scoop up a haul of extra picks.
Is any of that going to matter?
New England has won four games each of the last two seasons – one with the greatest coach in NFL history (Bill Belichick) and the next with the QB of the future (Drake Maye).
If you think it’s that bad, it isn’t. Things are actually worse.
So, let’s get back to business.
If I’m Vrabel, Kraft, or Ron Wolf’s son, Eliot – whoever is making the decisions these days – I’ve got Maye on the trading block.
You have one asset, one chance to change the direction of this gridiron mess.
Drake. Maye.
Not Maye the quarterback. He made little to no difference this past year, going 1-9 in the 10 starts in which he lasted past halftime.
It’s Maye the asset that can save your Patriots.
There is no way around it. The roster is clearly the worst in football, and attempting to save it in a year when every team has gobs of cash to spend in free agency and the draft talent is thin, could be fruitless.
So why not peddle Maye, who would easily be the No. 1 overall pick this time around? It wouldn’t be close.
Play the top three drafters against themselves. Tennessee, Cleveland and the Giants all need a quarterback.
The asking price for Maye would be astronomical.
With Tennessee, I’m talking the first pick overall, their No. 1 next year, a No. 2 in 2027, QB Will Levis and 27-year-old, three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons.
With Cleveland, it would be the No. 2 overall, a No. 1 next year, a No. 2 in 2027 and disgruntled four-time All-Pro defensive lineman Myles Garrett.
And with the Giants, I’m asking for No. 3 overall, a first-rounder next year and a second-rounder in 2027, along with second-year Pro Bowl receiver Malik Nabers.
My price is hefty. But those three are desperate.
New England has so many needs. It seems useless to waste Maye’s rookie-deal years on a roster laden with the likes of Sidy Sow, Demontrey Jacobs and Ja’Lynn Polk sharing the offensive huddle with him.
Build around the empty QB spot. Use the added draft capital and the money that is mandated to be spent – remember my theme for this offseason, #OverspendWisely – to build around the position.
Give Joe Milton a shot to make the job his own and add a Levis, another third or fourth-round rookie, and even a, gulp, veteran like Jimmy Garoppolo to the mix.
Drastic measures are needed here. If you have watched the on-field product each of the last two years, you know that. It hurts because it’s so evident.
I like the kid, a lot. But, as they say, business is business.
And trading away Drake Maye might just be the only way.