Rumors are swirling ahead of the November 10 trade deadline. The New England Patriots are in the middle of those rumors, and now we have a sense of what a key defensive player may be worth. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer spoke on Monday about the price tag that defensive tackle Christian Barmore could be worth.
We have already seen early reports of the Patriots willing to trade Carlton Davis III. It’s clear that the Patriots may want to offload some contract weight and begin to build for the future. The Patriots are older on the defensive side of football, and trading Barmore could help alleviate that.
Breer States His Case For Patriots
In the meantime, Breer laid out what a return for Barmore could look like.
“My understanding is the price would be about a fourth-round pick, and he may be tradable because if you look at his contract, he’s making $13.3 million this year. So you’d be taking on a prorated number off of that if you did trade for him. His numbers balloon after this year, those numbers aren’t guaranteed. So, a team could wind up walking away from that if they did trade for him. But this is a player that very clearly, you know, is available. And if somebody’s willing to swing the Patriots a fourth-round pick, I think something could happen.”
Patriots DT Has Bounced Back This Season
The defensive tackle has played in seven games this season. He has recorded 3.5 sacks, eight quarterback hits, and one forced fumble. Most recently he had one tackle in the team’s game against the Miami Dolphins. He also recorded half a sack.
His role has undoubtedly decreased with the organization. He has just 181 defensive snaps, which equals out to 41.9%. He has been reduced to a pass-rushing role behind Milton Williams and Corey Durden. Mike Vrabel noted that he wants the defensive tackle to focus on a pass-rush role more so than in other areas.
This is a significant drop-down for even last year. Barmore was playing first and second down on 59.6% of the plays. That has dropped to 40% this year. Third down is where he is excelling this year. He remains heavily involved in third downs, as he has taken 74.6% of the snaps there. Even so, that number is down from 84%.
It remains to be seen as Barmore will get traded. This is certainly a juxtaposition from where he was just a few years ago. He was once considered a linchpin of the defensive line. Health issues have undoubtedly gotten in the way for the defensive tackle over the course of the last couple seasons too. It’s fair to say that his production has slipped a bit over the coursew of the last couple of seasons. Now, the Patriots could have a chance to offload him and start fresh at the posiiton.
The Patriots may have several big choices to make over the course of the next couple of days. Moving Barmore could be viewed as a logical step, as the Patriots try to get younger defensively.
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