New England Patriots Trade Jamie Collins To Cleveland Browns

Jamie Collins is officially on the move. The New England Patriots shipped him to the Cleveland Browns on Monday afternoon.

The NFL Trade Deadline usually comes and passes pretty quietly. This year, the deadline date was set for Nov. 1, but not much had happened before Monday. On Halloween, the New England Patriots traded their star linebacker Jamie Collins to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a third round compensatory pick. The news first came via ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Needless to say, this is a mind boggling and unexpected move for the Patriots. Collins was arguably one of their best players on the defensive side of the ball and his athleticism was unparalleled by other defenders. Now, the team will have to move on without him and it appears the motivation was almost entirely financial.

Collins was entering the final year of his contract with the Patriots. Because of his strong play, he was expected to command a hefty salary raise from the rookie salary wage he was getting. In fact, had the Patriots used the franchise tag on Collins, it would have cost them $15 million per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Rapoport also mentions that contract talks were “going nowhere” and that appears to be true. Bill Belichick has been known to hold a firm line during contract talks, and that did not change in this scenario.

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Now, without Collins the Patriots are going to have to rely on a makeshift corps of linebackers to fill space around Dont’a Hightower. The prime candidate to step up is rookie Elandon Roberts. Roberts has looked good in limited action this season, and perhaps with more playing time, he will be even better. Roberts does have some athleticism, so that would be a sensible replacement for Collins.

However, Barkevious Mingo also will have a chance to take over for Collins. Mingo is listed as the primary backup at the weakside position on the Patriots depth chart, and he is probably the most athletic player left in the linebacker corps. Mingo has not yet proven himself as a Patriot, but he may get a chance to now.

For Cleveland, this is an absolutely steal of a deal. They get one of the best young linebackers in the league, and they are going to get a chance to sign him long term. They have enough cap space to tag him before the 2017 season if need be, so they are in pretty good shape. Still, they will likely have to pony up some “Von Miller money” to secure his services (per ESPN’s Adam Schefter).

That will be no easy task for the Browns, but the deal is well worth it no matter what. They got a top linebacker in the league for a late third-round pick. It does not get much better than that.

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Overall, this deal is a win for the Browns. If I were grading it, they would almost certainly get an A. Meanwhile, the Patriots got rid of a player they were not going to keep long term, but they did not get much back. Also, part of the reason they traded Chandler Jones this offseason was to help re-sign Collins. That is not going to happen, and now the team will be without a couple of stars.

For the Patriots, this gets an F. They would have gotten a third-round pick had Collins walked in free agency. Granted, it would not have been given out until 2018, but they would have Collins for this year’s playoff run. This was an ill-advised move by the Patriots, and it could come back to bite them.