6 veteran trade candidates for Patriots to consider during the NFL Draft

Patriots trade candidates

**WR Kayshon Boutte:** Another year, another batch of Kayshon Boutte trade rumors. He was not moved last year despite some speculation, and went on to produce the best season of his NFL career. Now heading into the final year of his rookie pact and with the Patriots in the process of overhauling their wide receiver room, they once again might be willing to move on from the soon-to-be 24-year-old. Rumor has it that a late-round draft pick would do the trick, even though New England has plenty of those already this year. Still, Boutte is a definitive player to keep an eye on over the coming days. **WR DeMario Douglas:** Douglas is in the same boat as Kayshon Boutte. A fellow 2023 draft choice heading into the final year of his rookie deal, he too is no lock to stay with New England in the long term. That is exactly why he might get traded. His case is not as straight forward as Boutte’s, though. Whereas the latter is coming off a productive season, Douglas struggled to get on the field consistently and had his fewest catches (31) and yards (447) since joining the Patriots. With his future in question, a late-round pick swap might be in the best interest for everyone involved. **RG Mike Onwenu:** The Patriots trading their starting right guard would only make sense if a replacement was available, meaning after they invested a high draft pick in a player like Oregon’s Emmanuel Pregnon, Texas A&M’s Chase Bisontis or Iowa’s Gennings Dunker. In that case, a move would make some sense given that Onwenu is entering the final season of the three-year contract extension he signed in 2024 and no lock to be retained in 2027. The move would probably not leave New England better off for 2026, but it might give the team more ammunition to follow through with the speculated A.J. Brown trade in June. Looking elsewhere on the Patriots’ roster, there are not a lot of players who would actually make sense as trade candidates. Maybe **DT Christian Barmore**, but moving him would mean opening an entirely new can of worms. **WR Kyle Williams** could also end up the odd man out at wide receiver, but him getting traded at this point in time and over the likes of Boutte or Douglas still looks like a long-shot scenario.

Potential Patriots trade targets

Before looking at some players the Patriots might pursue on the trade market, let’s preface this section by saying that such moves would still come as a surprise. Not only has Eliot Wolf never acquired a player via trade, his streak also is bound to come to an end in June with the aforementioned A.J. Brown move. Would he really part ways with more assets if Brown was waiting down the road? That said, the days and hours leading up to the draft are all about speculation, so why not speculate? **TE Michael Mayer (Raiders):** A second-round draft pick under then-Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels in 2023, Mayer is entering the final year of his rookie deal and about to play under his fourth head coach in as many NFL seasons. His three campaign so far have all been relatively quiet regardless of the coaching setup, and Brock Bowers is the clear TE1 on Las Vegas’ roster at the moment. He would likely not be the sole answer to the Patriots’ tight end need, but a change of scenery and return to the system he was drafted for might help him get his career back on track. **TE Kyle Pitts (Falcons):** Like Mayer, Pitts has also not lived up to his draft slot since entering the league fourth overall in 2021. Nonetheless, the Falcons did use the franchise tag to keep him from entering free agency earlier in the year. That would likely not prevent them from trading him if an attractive offer came along, however, especially given that they currently are short on draft capital after moving on from their 2026 first-round pick in last year’s draft. Pitts’ ceiling is higher than Mayer’s, and he also would be more expensive, but he would be an intriguing veteran addition to New England’s offense. **ED Alex Highsmith (Steelers):** The Patriots need pass rush, and the Steelers are apparently willing to listen to offers for a proven commodity: Alex Highsmith, who will turn 29 in August and is coming off a 9.5-sack season. He wouldn’t come cheap either, both contractually and in terms of financial compensation ($14.5M salary) but he would be a quality addition to a New England edge group that is lacking depth behind projected starters Harold Landry and Dre’Mont Jones. Obviously, the trade market runs deeper than those three players. However, other potential candidates such as **RB Tony Pollard (Titans)**, **WR George Pickens (Cowboys)** or **ED Kayvon Thibodeaux (Giants)** currently do not appear to be in realistic consideration for a variety of reasons. Of course, as mentioned above, all of this comes with a caveat: while veteran trades are fun to speculate about, the reality is that those happen far less often than one would think. For every veteran to move, there might by dozens of others who are mentioned but never actually sent from one team to another. So, while all of the names above are candidates, they are far from safe bets to be traded either from or to the Patriots or someplace else.