FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Oh, what could have been.
It was April 2018 and the New England Patriots were fresh off a second straight trip to the Super Bowl. With Tom Brady on the roster, they didn’t enter that offseason explicitly looking for a quarterback.
But they were mindful that a successor would need to be lined up only months removed from Brady celebrating his 40th birthday.
It led them to bring in multiple players for visits leading up to the NFL draft that spring, including a speedy former Heisman Trophy winner who was trying to quiet growing whispers around the league that he might be better suited to play receiver at the next level.