Where Washington Football Team ranks in Matthew Stafford sweepstakes
4. New England Patriots
The Patriots are above the Broncos as a formality. The Patriots can offer Stafford some things. They have a great coaching staff, a strong defense, and a very good offensive line.
However, New England is lacking one key thing that keeps them in the No. 4 spot: Offensive weaponry.
The Patriots have the worst receiving corps in the NFL. Their top players at the position last year were Julian Edelman, Jakobi Meyers, and Damiere Byrd. Their 2019 first-round draft pick N’Keal Harry looks like a bust, and unless he improves, the team will need at least a couple of replacements at the receiver position to surround Stafford with talent.
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That doesn’t even get into their lacking talent at tight end or their middling running back rotation. So, even if the Patriots are able to trade for Stafford, they’d still have work to do to build around him and reshape this team into a true competitor again.
The good news for the Patriots is that they do have a lot of cap space, so they could, hypothetically, trade for Stafford and then sign a free-agent receiver or two of his choosing (perhaps his old friends Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones). But getting a quality receiver on the open market won’t be easy given how important the position is across the league.
The Patriots do have the 15th overall pick, so building a trade package around that could entice the Lions enough. But would Bill Belichick want to give up a significant package like that to get a quarterback? Or would he just want to take the cheaper route once again?
There are too many questions to consider the Patriots a top contender for Stafford. He would certainly be an upgrade for them, and they have the assets to get him. It’s just a question of how good this team can be with him and whether or not Belichick wants to make a trade like that with the team that just fired a couple of his disciples, former Lions coach Matt Patricia and former GM Bob Quinn.