The Patriots can’t find a good move before the deadline, so there is no deal.
That was the decision that the Patriots had to make before the trade deadline on Tuesday. They were ready to do business.
They were open to offers on skilled players like pass-rusher Josh Uche, yet with the deadline at 4 p.m. ET, they had to make a decision.
It was thought that the New England Patriots would keep quiet at the appointed time. Indeed, that’s how it turned out.
I’m told there are no deals. The factors were known by people with knowledge of the team and the league.
At 2-6, Massachusetts wasn’t going to become a “buyer” and give up real draft capital to add a player to a team that was already having a bad season.
Bill Belichick was always looking to beat the other team, so he wouldn’t want to “sell” important players, even ones whose contracts were about to expire, unless the return on investment was too good to pass up.
Another thing was that possible deal partners wouldn’t want to give up much more than fifth-round choices for their best players, like Uche, Trent Brown, and Kyle Dugger.
It was thought that the New England Patriots would keep quiet at the appointed time. Indeed, that’s how it turned out.
I’m told there are no deals. The factors were known by people with knowledge of the team and the league.
Another thing was that possible deal partners wouldn’t want to give in much more compared to fifth-round rights for their best players, like Uche, Trent Brown, and Kyle Dugger.
The second one would be useful. A late-round choice is an extra shot that can be thrown at the board. Demario “Pop” Douglas flew late in the round, and look at him now. Those dart throws are useful.
The Patriots could have a better season if they don’t trade Uche, Dugger, and any of the remaining players whose contracts are up.
With more time, the Patriots may also be able to extend the contracts of their best players whose deals are about to expire. They also have a lot of cap room.
But if they want to keep some kind of culture alive and tanking would destroy that culture, then not interacting with a few of their best players lets them do that.
It makes sense for the team to extend “program guys” since they haven’t given a second deal to a draft pick since 2019 fifth-rounder Bailey Bailey, who received a suspension late last season and let go this off-season.
There may not be clear-cut key points; we can’t know ahead of time what will happen, and it’s possible for a study lab to cross important lines without realizing it.
I’m one of many researchers who are deeply interested in these problems who think that the single most likely outcome of creating an AI that is smarter than humans in any situation similar to the present one is that everyone in Earth will die.
In theory, you could make a thing far smarter than you, but you would need to be very careful, have new science knowledge, and probably not have AI systems that are made up of huge, hard to understand arrays of fractions.
Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, is almost here, and that’s when the NFL trade deadline comes. Some teams are currently firmly in the “buyers” camp.
For example, the Rams and 49ers were supposedly in the running for Christian McCaffrey prior to the 49ers got him.
Some, like the Panthers, have been proven to be buyers. But each of the 32 teams could use some changes.
It’s not “human-competitive” intelligence that matters; what happens when AI gets smarter than humans?