New England Patriots Rumors: 3 players the Pats could trade right now

New England Patriots trade candidate No. 2: Nelson Agholor

Nelson Agholor was signed as part of the 2021 free agent spending spree. Some of the acquisitions, especially edge rusher Matt Judon, tight end Hunter Henry, cornerback Jalen Mills, and to a lesser extent, defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, were positive contributors. Agholor, however, didn’t pan out and was a huge disappointment.

Agholor was signed with the intent for him to be a top receiver. His salary of $26M over two years certainly signaled as much, yet Agholor caught a mere 37 passes for 473 yards with four touchdown catches.

This season the Patriots are on the hook for a whopping $15M cap hit for this underperformer. With a career-best 64 reception season, it can certainly be questioned whether he warranted that type of contract in the first place. It says here he did not. Others felt it was a good move.

A trade of Agholor would relieve the Patriots of that $15M wasted cap space. This is highly unlikely, however, as the team trading for the player would take on that large salary. Even if there were a team so confused to make such a trade, he wouldn’t bring back much in return.

With that in mind, the more attainable option would be to just release Agholor and utilize the almost $5M in free cap space they would gain. While the dead cap hit would be in the neighborhood of $10M, this is still the preferable option if no trade partner can be found. His 37 catches won’t be missed and his departure would allow a promising young wideout like Tre Nixon an opportunity to contribute.