On Wednesday, ESPN's Adam Schefter joined Gresh and Keefe as part of the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon.
Schefter broke the news of Sony Michel being traded to the Rams for two late conditional draft picks earlier in the day, and he explained how it went down.
The biggest takeaway was the Patriots turned down offers from other teams and they are very high on their other backs.
“Well for of all, I think when the Rams lost Cam Akers, they wanted to go to camp and see what they had," he said. "They liked what they had. They liked Darrell Henderson. They liked Xavier Jones. They liked Jake Funk, a Christian McCaffrey-like running back — obviously, maybe not as talented — but, they liked what they had. Monday night, Darrell Henderson, or Monday afternoon, goes out to practice and hurts his thumb. I think that kind of scared the Rams a little bit and put them in a position where there began thinking about running backs.
“I think at that point in time, people around the league knew that the Patriots had a surplus of running backs because they really like Damien Harris. They like Rhamondre Stevenson, their fourth-round running back. The have James White. They have [J.J.] Taylor. They have backs. And so I think teams were calling about Sony Michel and the Patriots initially resisted offers from other teams and then somewhere around [Tuesday], I don’t know what changed, but maybe we’re getting close to the final roster decisions and New England began crunching numbers and saw that, ‘Look, Sony Michel is entering the last year of his contract, doesn’t have a future in New England, get two picks back for him, create a roster spot and you move on from him.’
“The Rams saw somebody that could step in and kind of be a starting running back if that is what they need, somebody that came on last year and played very well in the second half of the season. And so they trade a fifth and sixth-round pick to the Patriots and the Patriots move on from a position they have a lot of depth at. The Rams add depth, which they needed. The Patriots create other opportunities for other running backs and I think everybody makes out ahead on the deal.”
Michel was selected in the first round of the 2018 draft.