The New England Patriots have already made a significant trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this offseason. They sent their former first-round pick Mac Jones back to his hometown team. Jones is the latest former first-round pick to amount to being little more than a backup in the NFL. It is why nailing your quarterback draft selections are so paramount. New England is trusting Drake Maye now.
With Jacoby Brissett keeping the seat warm until Maye is ready, Eliot Wolf and the rest of the New England brass need to find a guy who can help keep him upright. One possible solution put out there by Alex Kay of Bleacher Report, who has Jacksonville trading offensive tackle Cam Robinson to the Patriots for a fourth-round pick next year. I like the idea, but Robinson will cost way more than that.
By doing this trade, the Jaguars would be giving up $17.6 million in assets for only $3.6M in return...
Again, orchestrating a trade wasn't easy, but this deal gets us within $125,000 of being totally even.
To me, the Jaguars valued Robinson so much that they gave him that massive contract. He has spent his entire pro career in Jacksonville after starring at Alabama in college. While he wasn't a first-round pick by the Jaguars, Robinson has proven to be a really offensive tackle, especially over the last few years with Trevor Lawrence as the team's quarterback. It may take a lot to get him to be traded away.
Let's discuss if the Patriots make the trade. Better yet, let's discuss what gets Jacksonville on board.
I think the fact that the Jaguars and Patriots already made a notable trade this offseason suggests that Wolf and Trent Baalke could be in the business of doing business with each other once again. However, this is the wrong team to trade with if you are the Patriots. Jacksonville is in win-now mode with a franchise quarterback of its own in Lawrence. They cannot afford to do business like this now.
Robinson to the Patriots would certainly expedite the Patriots' rebuild, but they are still so far away from actually competing. Even if the Patriots nailed all of their draft picks, I don't think they are realistically playoff-viable until 2026 at the earliest. Adding Robinson could help make them a playoff team in 2025, but Jacksonville is going to want way more than fourth-round pick for their star tackle.
While I trust Baalke to make more good decisions than bad with the assortment of picks coming Jacksonville's way in my trade proposal, what kind of message does it send to the fans in sending Robinson to a team in-conference like the Patriots? For so many reasons, I cannot see this trade being anything more than a discussion at this point. All offers should start with a second-rounder.
The shame in it all is the Jaguars of not all that long ago would have definitely made this awful trade.
Grade: F, as in forget about it!
