The New England Patriots and Houston Texans have made a trade just days before the NFL Draft. On Monday, the Patriots announced they have acquired a sixth-round draft pick (No. 183) and a seventh-round draft pick (No. 285) from the Texans in exchange for a fifth-round pick (No. 170) this year. As mentioned by CBS Sports, the Patriots have made more draft-day trades than any team in the look since Bill Belichick became the head coach in 2000.
This year, the Patriots traded a third-round pick for wide receiver DeVante Parker and a fifth-round pick from the Miami Dolphins. They also received a fifth-round pick from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for Shaq Mason, traded a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft to the Las Vegas Raiders for Trent Brown last offseason and received a 2022 sixth-round pick and 2023 fourth-round pick from the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for Sony Michel last year.
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The Patriots are looking to get back to Super Bowl glory. After missing the playoffs in 2020, they clinched a spot last season only to lose to the Buffalo Bills in the wild card round. Since 2001, the Patriots have played in nine Super Bowls while winning six of them. They were led by Tom Brady who signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020.
The Texans are in rebuild mode as they traded star quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns. With that trade, the Texans have two-first round picks and have 10 picks overall. Houston also has a new head coach in Lovie Smith who spent time as head coach of the Chicago Bears and Buccaneers.
“We have a long period of time to go before we play our first game and how we do things, but right now what we’re trying to get to the guys as much as anything is just the importance of showing up,” Smith said in a press conference earlier this month. “There’s no magic pill on how we’re going to do things, just hard work. At first just work, faith in what we’re doing, faith with work is what we’re talking about right now. That starts with just showing up for the offseason program. Letting our strength and conditioning guys coach them up, get bigger, stronger, faster. We have a lot experience, a lot of good coaches to start that process.”
