While many fans may have wondered whether Bill Belichick still had some more tricks up his sleeve before the NFL’s trade deadline at 4 pm EST on Tuesday, October 29, it appears the New England Patriots were content to largely stand pat.
Even if they’d wanted to make an overture for an available player on another team – there had been rumors linking them to Tampa Bay’s O.J. Howard, Washington’s Trent Williams, and Cincinnati’s Tyler Eifert – the Pats were always going to be hamstrung by their lack of cap space. Because Belichick is New England’s GM as well as its head coach, he understands better than most other NFL figures how important it is to balance a desire to win now while still abstaining from “selling the family farm.