The New England Patriots have made their first deal ahead of the Nov. 5 NFL trade deadline.
The Patriots are trading edge rusher Josh Uche to the Kansas City Chiefs, the team confirmed Monday. New England will get a 2026 sixth-round draft pick from the Chiefs as part of the deal, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
“Tough fit in New England, where he was a designated pass-rusher,” NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots insider Phil Perry wrote on Twitter/X. “Stiff-upper-lipped it the last couple of seasons. Now with a team where he should see an uptick in obvious passing situations.”
Uche was held out of the Patriots’ 25-22 win over the New York Jets on Sunday despite not having an injury, so it’s not surprising that he was moved soon after.
The Patriots selected Uche in the second-round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He tallied 20.5 sacks in 58 career games in New England. His best season came in 2022 when he tallied a career-high 11.5 sacks in 15 games. Uche posted 13 tackles and two sacks in seven games for the Patriots this season.
It will be interesting to see whether the Patriots can find deals involving other veteran players with eight days remaining before the trade deadline.
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Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer joined NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots Pregame Live on Sunday and gave an update on the Patriots’ status ahead of the deadline.
“They’re open for business and they’ll listen on anything,” Breer said. “I think the ones you want to look at are players who might be on second contracts and deeper into their careers where it’s a little hard to see those guys being major pieces of the puzzle two or three years down the line when the program is where they would hope it would be.
“I think the two markets that have really been hot to this point, as far as discussions behind the scenes between teams, are wide receiver and edge rusher. Those are two areas where the Patriots do have a surplus — I’m not saying they have great players at those positions — but they have numbers at those positions, so they could offload a guy and not become non-functional at those spots.”
The Patriots have a bunch of wide receivers on their roster, including a lot of young players at the position who need more snaps to develop. Could that potentially lead to a trade involving a veteran wideout such as Kendrick Bourne and/or K.J. Osborn?
The Patriots are in the midst of a rebuild, so if they can acquire some draft picks for veterans who might not be part of the team’s long-term future, those moves are worth exploring.