5 thoughts on New England's decision to not make a move at trade deadline

After making headlines at the trade deadline the last two years by moving Jimmy Garoppolo (2017) and Jamie Collins (2016), the Patriots were quiet at this year’s trade deadline. Here are four thoughts on where New England stands right now.

1. Running back depth remains an issue. Some of this has to do with the trade deadline and some of it has to do with the state of the roster and some has to do with Greg’s column here about lack of bodies around Tom Brady. But not adding a running back at the deadline and utilizing Cordarrelle Patterson in the backfield against Buffalo at the expense of a veteran like Kenjon Barner was an odd move. Maybe it was a matchup thing. Maybe it was something else. But whatever the case may be, the only thing we know for sure when it comes to the running back position is that James White is going to continue to get a ton of reps. Moving forward, there are still free-agent possibilities out there (Mike Gillislee), as well as practice squadder Kenneth Farrow. And Rex Burkhead is still eligible to return this season. (The first game where he's eligible to play will be against the Vikings on Dec. 2.) But in the meantime, it’ll be interesting to see how the Pats play it at running back.

2. Once Golden Tate was no longer on the market, the Patriots were smart not to go any deeper when it came to wide receiver. From this perspective, Tate was the only receiver who moved the needle at all. A smart and versatile pass catcher, he has always struck me as the sort of guy who would fit in New England. I don’t know why the Patriots and Lions couldn’t make it work, but he ended up going to Philly for a third-round pick. For what it’s worth, I was never a fan of Demaryius Thomas. The one name who might be interesting is Brandon Marshall, who was let go by the Seahawks. I have no idea how much Marshall has left in the tank, but the 34-year-old is a 6-foot-5, 232-pounder who has played for five different teams over the course of his career. He’s expressed an interest in playing in New England before — he’s the sort of guy I’d at least make a call on to see how much he had left.

3. When it comes to wide receivers, the news the Patriots may have dangled Phillip Dorsett in a potential deal with the Texans is certainly intriguing, and makes me think that barring another trade, they’re feeling pretty good where they are with Josh Gordon. Dorsett’s role has fundamentally evolved from deep threat into Gordon insurance. If they believed they were in a situation where they could let Dorsett walk, from this perspective, they probably feel like things with Gordon are on solid ground.

4. Mildly surprised they weren't land a complementary linebacker to help build depth at that position -- not necessarily Jamie Collins, but this year's Kyle Van Noy, to put it simply. The back end of that depth will be tested down the stretch and into the postseason. If Monday's game is any indication, John Simon and Nicholas Grigsby currently round out the back end of the depth chart. One more note when it comes to defense -- the Patriots put Eric Rowe on injured reserve on Tuesday because of his groin issues. I'd imagine they fill that roster spot with an addition defender, while Jason McCourty, J.C. Jackson, Keion Crossen and (eventually) Duke Dawson see more work at corner in Rowe's absence.

5. I thought this quote from Bill Belichick’s conference call on Tuesday was pretty interesting. He was asked if having the trade deadline fall on a short week for the Patriots changed their overall approach.

“No, I don't think so,” he replied. “I think if you have a later game, like we had this week, then you use a little bit of the extra time last week to maybe check on a couple of things, or teams that want to communicate with us can and did do that knowing that we had a game on Monday night. They might have initiated conversation on Friday or Saturday of last week. Sometimes these conversations go back several weeks, so you just never know.

“Each situation is different,” he added. “I don’t think there's any set formula. I don’t think it's that big of a deal. Everybody’s pretty accessible by phone, so we can get ahold of whoever we need to get ahold of. Anybody that needs to get ahold of us, they can do that too.”