New England Patriots: 3 wide receiver trade targets to keep an eye on

We are just10 days away from the start of the regular season for the New England Patriots. They are set to kick things off on September 12th at Gillette Stadium when they welcome in old friend Brian Flores and the Miami Dolphins. After last year’s trying 7-9 season, the Week 1 opener can’t come soon enough.

Only adding to the excitement in New England is the fact that rookie quarterback Mac Jones will be the starter for that game and the ensuing 16 that follow. Jones, the 15th overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, shined bright during training camp and the three preseason games, and it was good enough to force the Patriots to give him the starting job and boot presumed starter, Cam Newton, off the roster entirely.

If Jones is going to be successful, he is going to need some good weapons around him. While he has a solid cast of tight ends and running backs at his side, the wide receiver corps is still lacking. Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne are set to join forces with 2020 holdover Jakobi Meyers, but it still feels like the group is lacking another playmaker in this department.

That’s why it is still very possible the Patriots look to bring in another wide receiver at some point during the season. Maybe a guy like N’Keal Harry is able to come off the injured reserve and make an impact, but that’s certainly not something this team should count on. Here are three wide receivers that could potentially be trade targets as the season progresses.

New England Patriots trade target No. 3: Michael Gallup

Michael Gallup is one of the more interesting wide receivers heading into the season. The young wideout seemed set to be Amari Cooper’s partner in crime for the foreseeable future after his breakout 2019 season in which he caught 66 passes for 1107 yards and six touchdowns, all in just 14 games of action. Gallup took a step back though in 2020 though, and his status with the Dallas Cowboys has been up in the air ever since.

Gallup played all 16 games last season, but only managed to haul in 59 passes for 843 yards and five touchdowns. Part of this is likely due to Gallup having to catch passes from Andy Dalton rather than Dak Prescott last season. The bigger, and more problematic issue for Dallas, was the emergence of CeeDee Lamb, their first round pick in last year’s draft.

In a down year for the Cowboys offense, Lamb was their best player for stretches of the season. He pretty quickly took snaps away from Gallup, and raised the question of whether or not he was expendable to the team.

With Prescott back under center this season, the Cowboys are probably going to find out pretty quickly whether or not they need Gallup. If they don’t, the Patriots should be one of the first teams on the line asking Dallas what they would have to do to land the talented wideout.

Gallup would be a hot commodity on the trade market considering he has a tremendous amount of upside, and he is still just 25 years old. He might be the third best wide receiver on Dallas, but he could probably come into New England and be the top wideout for the Pats.

The New England Patriots have a lot of trade bait, and could pretty easily put together a package for Gallup, especially if he were to end up requesting a trade or if Dallas ends up looking to move him. Gallup offers the potential to come in and immediately be New England’s best wide receiver, and his situation is definitely one worth monitoring as the season progresses.