The Patriots’ tight end situation has pushed the position to the front of the trade conversation, and it’s not hard to see why. Julian Hill’s season-ending injury left Hunter Henry and rookie Eli Raridon as the only real bodies in the room, and that’s a thin setup for a team trying to get through training camp with answers instead of questions.
That’s only part of the reason a trade keeps making sense. Henry is in the final year of his current contract, and there’s already a real possibility he either doesn’t come back in 2027 or walks away because of his age.
Raridon might grow into the job, but the expectation is that he won’t be ready that quickly. So if the Patriots want a proven option, the market points them toward an established veteran.
One name has stayed near the top of the fan wishlist: Bears tight end Cole Kmet. He’s been viewed as a trade candidate all offseason, and with Colston Loveland projected to play a bigger role in Chicago’s offense this year, Kmet looks like the obvious odd man out.
That’s where the latest projection gets interesting. Wynston Wilcox of FanSided.com suggested the Panthers could land Kmet from the Bears for a 2027 sixth-round pick. It’s not a Patriots-specific deal, but it does set a striking price for a 27-year-old tight end who could help a team right away.
At that cost, it’s easy to understand why Kmet keeps coming up. A player at his position who can upgrade an offense usually doesn’t come cheap, and someone like Raiders tight end Michael Mayer would almost certainly require more. There’s a case to be made that Mayer would be the better move overall, especially since Josh McDaniels drafted him when he was the head coach, but that doesn’t mean the Raiders are ready to move him or that the Patriots would want to pay the draft capital it would take.
Kmet, by comparison, feels attainable. He could step in as a long-term answer if Henry’s exit comes sooner rather than later, and he’d give Drake Maye a dependable target in the same mold as the one Henry has provided over the last five years. At the very least, he belongs high on the Patriots’ list of trade possibilities before the deadline.
In Other News...
Patriots Have A Chance To Fix Their Biggest Defensive Question Fast
As the Patriots sort through their roster before training camp, the biggest defensive question remains the same one that has hovered over the group for much of the offseason: where the pass rush is going to come from. There are reasons for concern all over the depth chart, from DreMont Jones to Harold Landrys rehab, while KLavon Chaisson is gone and Gabe Jacas still remains unsigned, leaving New England with more uncertainty than answers on the edge.
One possible fix has surfaced in the trade market, where a veteran pass rusher who is reportedly looking to move on from Arizona has been floated as a fit for New England. The idea is simple enough for a team trying to get ahead of a problem fast, especially if the price lands around a future third-round pick, but for now it remains exactly that - a proposal, not a deal, with the Patriots still weighing whether to solve the issue through a trade or keep their options open elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Mac Jones Just Confirmed Patriots Fans Were Right About 2022 Chaos
Mac Jones has added a new layer to the story of how the Patriots offense unraveled after Josh McDaniels left following his rookie season. What looked from the outside like a simple coordinator change quickly turned into a much messier setup, with Bill Belichick stepping into the offensive mix alongside Matt Patricia and the whole operation losing the clarity a young quarterback needs.
The result was confusion that bled onto the field and helped push the offense into a spiral that led to more coaching changes down the line. For Patriots fans who lived through that stretch, Jones account does not so much rewrite the season as confirm how unstable it felt, and it helps explain why the organization kept searching for a fix long after the damage was done. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Fans Wont Like Whos Being Linked To Super Bowl Prep
Seattle fans are still enjoying the afterglow of Super Bowl LX, but the conversation around how Seattle prepared for New England has taken on a strange twist. On The Dan Patrick Show, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said the team had help from someone with a conflict of interest during its buildup to the title game, a remark that immediately sent speculation in a few directions.
Macdonald did move to cool off one of the biggest theories, saying the adviser was not Bill Belichick, even as the mystery around the role lingered. For Patriots followers, it is another frustrating footnote to a game Seattle won with Kenneth Walker III taking MVP honors, and it adds a little more intrigue to a matchup that already left New England looking for answers. [Read more 🡒]