On Monday, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel joined The Greg Hill Show for his second “Patriots Monday” interview of the football season.
Since he last joined the show, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf met with the media ahead of a training camp practice, where we was asked if the organization would be willing to trade a first or second round pick to acquire one of the many disgruntled star players from around the league - players the likes of Micah Parsons or Terry McLaurin.
“Sure,” said Wolf. “Just doing what’s best for the team. If there’s a player out there that we feel like can help us and it costs that, then we would consider doing that.
“We’re talking to all 31 other teams, trying to do what’s best for us. If that presents itself, [but] I think those things are often more complicated than fans and some others would like to make you believe.”
With this type of declaration from the front office front man, it was only natural for the morning show crew to ask the head coach if he agreed with this sentiment.
Here’s what Vrabel had to say on Monday about potentially taking a big swing in the trade market as the preseason comes to a close:
Chris Curtis: “You talk about being intentional. How important is it to have one voice that's echoed throughout the building? I just think to the public comments a week or two ago where Eliot Wolf said, ‘Well, we're willing to trade a first or a second round pick to acquire a talent.’ It seems like there are multiple people speaking about the direction of the organization, and that struck me as just odd. I would never envision you saying publicly what you would be willing to trade for an asset.”
Mike Vrabel: “Well, I mean - I think that when you talk about player acquisition, I think it depends. That's a hard question to answer without talking about who that player is, and I think that we have to go to great lengths to improve this team.
“There's different options. And if that's through the draft or trading somebody or trading for a player - I'm certainly not going to speak for anybody or Eliot or anybody else, but we'll have to make sure that we invest a lot of time into what those decisions are, look at them and then say, ‘Is this what's best for the team?’ And then if it's not, then don't do it. But if it is, then we would have to consider it.
“So you know, I just - you know, that one voice or two voice, I think that that's pretty clear that we're in alignment as an organization, what we want from our players, what what we expect, what we want our identity to be, and then we'll go about trying to get there.”
Greg Hill: “I know you don't want to talk about players that are on other teams, [I] understand that. But players like that - like there are two, maybe three, legit playmaker additions that you could add to this football team who seem to be disgruntled. Is it your philosophy that you want to go do whatever it takes to go and get somebody who can add to this team right now.?”
MV: “Well, again - we want to continue to strengthen the roster. And I don't know if that's the players that you're talking about, or some other players, or how that may come about. But I know we have had conversations. We'll continue to have conversations about continuing to improve the roster. And then again, if it makes sense and we feel like it's advantageous to us, then we’ll consider it.”
Whether the Patriots are able to pull off a major trade before Week 1 or not, we know their roster is going to look very different come Tuesday evening, as final camp cutdowns are due league-wide.
As of publishing, the Patriots have already released 15 players from the 91 they had on their roster heading into the final preseason game:
- TE Jaheim Bell
- RB Micah Bernard
- DT Philip Blidi
- CB Isaiah Bolden
- TE Cole Fotheringham
- WR Phil Lutz
- LB R.J. Moten
- DT Kyle Peko
- CB Jordan Polk
- LB Monty Rice
- OL Layden Robinson
- G Tyrese Robinson
- G Sidy Sow
- RB Shane Watts
- QB Ben Wooldridge
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com for all the latest on Patriots’ roster moves, and make sure you tune in to The Greg Hill Show each and every Monday during football season for their conversation with Vrabel.