Patriots would trade first-rounder for player worth that price: Could they target Micah Parsons, other stars?
New England has the resources to get aggressive
By
Jared Dubin
•
5 min read
No team in the NFL has more salary cap space available than the New England Patriots. According to Over the Cap, New England still has nearly $60 million ($59,798,184, to be exact) to spend under this year's limit. That means there is no team more in position to potentially absorb a high-salaried player in a trade.
And wouldn't you know it, de facto general manager Eliot Wolf said Monday that the team would be willing to deal a first-round pick for a player worthy of that price tag, per MassLive. At the moment, there are three players who have requested trades that are potentially worthy of that price tag: Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons, Bengals edge rusher Trey Hendrickson and Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin.
Below, we're going to walk through the potential fit in New England for each player, and whether it'd be worth it for the Pats to trade a first-rounder to acquire them.
Micah Parsons is arguably the NFL's best pass rusher and overall defensive player. He turned 26 years old in May, he's already a three-time All-Pro and he's finished top-three in NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting three times in four years. The only time he didn't make an All-Pro team or finish top-three in voting was last year, when he missed four games due to injury. And he still made the Pro Bowl, which he's now done in each year of his career.
He's the only player in NFL history other than Reggie White to record 12-plus sacks in each of his first four seasons. He's tied for first in the NFL in pressures (330) since he entered the league, according to Tru Media, and he has rushed the passer more than 600 fewer times than the player with whom he is tied (Maxx Crosby has 2,235 pass-rush snaps while Parsons has a mere 1,622). Parsons also checks in first (by far) in pressure rate (pressures per pass-rush snap) at 20.3%, with the next-closest player (Hendrickson) almost three full percentage points behind (17.5%).
New England obviously does not have anyone like him coming off the edge. (Nobody does, at least not in his age range. All of the other players in his class as a pass rusher are already 30 or older or will turn during this season.) Last season, the Patriots generated pressure on only 28.1% of opponent dropbacks -- 31st in the NFL. They signed Harold Landry and K'Lavon Chaisson and drafted Bradyn Swinson this offseason, but those are potentially minor upgrades to the unit at best. They could use Parsons more than perhaps any other team in the NFL.
It would be well worth it for them to trade a first-round pick and potentially much more if they could secure Parsons, even accounting for the monster contract extension they'd have to give him. (Of course, it's for that exact reason that Dallas would be silly to actually trade him.) With Drake Maye on his rookie-scale contract, they have plenty of room to pay a superstar player like this over the next 4 to 5 years.
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Trey Hendrickson led the NFL in sacks a year ago and is third in sacks and fifth in pressures over the past four years. As previously mentioned, his 17.5% pressure rate is second only to Parsons during that time.
The difference between Parsons and Hendrickson is that Parsons is 26 and Hendrickson is already 30 years old and turning 31 later this year. Any contract extension for Parsons would likely only take him through his age-30 or 31 season, covering the prime of his career.
An extension for Hendrickson would probably cover his age-31-to-34 or 35 campaigns -- a time during which players often experience decline. He'd also have to be paid at or near the top of the market, and we know he wants (and deserves) multiple years of guaranteed money on a new deal.
So while it's unquestionably worth it to sacrifice the picks and pay out the money for Parsons, it's a more complicated question when it comes to Hendrickson. If he were already under contract for the next few years and not in need of a new deal, it would make much more sense. As it stands, the Pats would probably be better off passing on him -- even if he would really help their defense.
Terry McLaurin is coming off a career season during which he finally had a quarterback worthy of his talents. He made the Pro Bowl for the second time in his six-year career and he was named a second-team All-Pro -- his first appearance on an All-Pro team.
He, too, wants a new contract, and he probably wants to be paid more like DK Metcalf (four years, $132 million, $80 million guaranteed) than Courtland Sutton (four years, $92 million, $41 million guaranteed). If he was willing to be paid like Sutton, he'd probably already be signed. The issue is that McLaurin will turn 30 years old this season, just like Sutton, while Metcalf is a couple years younger. (Former NFL agent and CBS Sports contributor Joel Corry recently suggested a compromise that allows for salary escalators and de-escalators based on his production.)
There's also the fact that McLaurin produced last year in largely the same way he had during the prior five years of his career. He snagged 82 passes for 1,096 yards, nearly matching his averages from the previous four years of 80 grabs for 1,091 yards. The difference is basically that he came close to tripling the number of touchdowns: he caught 13 last year after averaging a mere 4.5 during the previous four years. So, is he really that much more valuable right now than he would have been at this time last year? It's an interesting debate.
Whether he'd be worth it for the Patriots is as well. Had they not already signed Stefon Diggs this offseason, I think it'd make more sense than it does right now. They have their veteran wideout to provide stability for Maye early in his career.
Sacrificing a first-round pick to acquire another one and paying him at what he thinks is market price is probably not the best use of resources. New England has more than enough cap room to handle it right now, of course, but that room can also be rolled over to next year, when it can hopefully acquire players who are more in sync with its current timeline.
