With roster cutdowns looming, the New England Patriots will not just have to decide who to release to get under the league-mandated 53-player threshold by Saturday afternoon’s deadline but also whether or not to pick any outside talent up to bolster their roster. This process will look different in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the league’s preparatory process, but it would still not be a surprise to see the Patriots add players to their roster either via trade, free agency or the NFL’s waiver wire.
History, after all, strongly suggests that at least one such move might happen over the next few hours: since the old collective bargaining agreement was signed into effect in 2011, the Patriots acquired a total of 35 players that way on cutdown weekend.