Latest trade scenario sends T.J. Watt to Patriots for DB, two draft picks
Bleacher Report's Brent Sobleski had the Patriots parting with a 2026 second-round draft pick, a 2027 third-round pick and veteran safety Jabrill Peppers to land the seven-time Pro Bowl defender.
Sobleski would view the move as a salary dump if the Patriots emerged as the top suitor for Watt. It makes sense considering the Patriots currently have the most available salary cap space in the league. They could easily take on Watt's contract and agree on an extension.
They also have the depth at safety to survive moving away from a reliable player like Peppers. Second-year defensive back Dell Pettus and rookie Craig Woodson have both flashed as future top options in the backfield for the Patriots. Bumping one of those two as starters to land a true difference-maker like Watt feels like a no-brainer move.
So far, the Steelers haven't shown a willingness to move on from Watt, who is entering the final year of his contract. Watt, who is reportedly unhappy with his current deal, skipped out on mandatory minicamp. Would he be willing to miss training camp as well if an agreement isn't reached with the Steelers?
His approach to the contract situation could decide if New England even has a chance to get involved in any real negotiations.
Follow Patriots Wire on Twitter and Facebook.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Free agent Bills let leave named among NFL's 'most overpaid players'
The Buffalo Bills have earned some praise for a past decision from Bleacher Report, in a twist. Bleacher Report named the "most overpriced player" at each position in the NFL heading into the 2025 season. Once upon a time, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds was a first-round pick by the Bills but did not stick around in Buffalo. Prior to the 2023 season, Edmunds signed a big contact with the Chicago Bears in free agency. Since then, the Bills have not struggled at the position. Edmunds was once in one of the NFL's best linebacker duos with Matt Milano in Buffalo but Terrel Edmunds has since taken his spot there seamlessly. While Edmunds is still considered a productive player in B/R's breakdown, it's not the list he or the Bears will want to see him on. B/R's breakdown on Edmunds can be found below: Average Annual Salary: $18 million Over his seven seasons in the NFL, Tremaine Edmunds has been consistently productive. The 2018 first-round pick for the Buffalo Bills has tallied at least 100 total tackles every season he has been in the league. But as Bleacher Report's Kris Knox pointed out in calling his four-year, $72 million contract one of the NFL's 10 worst, what Edmunds has not been in Chicago is a true impact defender: "Edmunds hasn't been a complete bust for the Bears. He's topped 100 tackles in each of his two seasons with the franchise while allowing an opposing passer rating below 90.0 in coverage. He has certainly had his moments. "Edmunds has not, however, been a Pro Bowl-caliber player or helped turn Chicago's defense into a top unit. Pro Football Focus graded Edmunds as the league's 119th-best linebacker overall for the 2024 season. In other words, Edmunds has been good but not great when at his best for the Bears. In return, Chicago is paying the 27-year-old as if he was an All-Pro-level off-ball linebacker. "Among inside 'backers, only San Francisco standout Fred Warner is earning more annually than Edmunds." Annual salary is the only place you'll see Edmunds compared to Warner. Edmunds is what he is: a good-but-not-great linebacker who is wildly overpaid. His pact was a bad contract when it was signed. It hasn't aged well, either. But at least the Bears can get out of it in 2026 with a relatively minimal dead cap hit.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Shaikin: How to revitalize baseball's All-Star Game? Bat flips
Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, a perennial All-Star, flips his bat into the air after hitting a three-run homer against the Dodgers. During the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, bat flips should become an integral part of the show, suggests Times columnist Bill Shaikin. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) We need bat flips. The home run swing-off to end Tuesday's All-Star Game was great. Whether you embrace it as a revelation or dismiss it as a gimmick, baseball needs more of that kind of imagination on the national stage. On the morning after the game, it's what you're talking about. Advertisement But baseball cannot count on a tie score every summer. The All-Star Game cannot live off old glories. The All-Star Game cannot thrive simply because the NFL turned the Pro Bowl into a flag football game and skills competition while the NBA turned its All-Star Game into a week of parties and 48 minutes of a defense-free scrimmages. Baseball can say its All-Star Game is the best, but the bar is as low as the final round of a limbo competition. Baseball needs the best players, not the best available players, in the game. And, in an era dominated by social media and short attention spans, baseball needs innovation in the Home Run Derby — not just in an All-Star Game tiebreaker, but in the actual Home Run Derby that is its own Major Television Event on the night before the game. The first suggestion, from Brent Rooker, the Athletics' All-Star designated hitter: 'I had the idea that we would just stick PCA (the Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong) and (the Athletics') Denzel Clarke in the outfield during the Home Run Derby and just let them run down balls. That's a fun idea that popped into our clubhouse a few weeks ago.' Advertisement An all-in-one Home Run Derby and skills competition of outfielders contorting their bodies in all directions to make highlight-worthy catches? That's a cool thought. Bat flips would be better. Read more: Amid resurgent year and batting title push, Will Smith unbothered being 'overlooked' The bat flip, once scorned as an instrument of disrespect, is now celebrated by the league itself. It naturally lends itself to the 'Did you see it?' reels young fans share on Instagram and Snapchat. The first round of Monday's Home Run Derby was exhausting. It took nearly two hours, and what little flash there was felt forced. Besides, the sluggers you most wanted to see — Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge — declined to participate. Advertisement 'I already did it,' Judge said Tuesday. 'I don't know what else you want from me. I think it's time for somebody else to step up and do their thing and have fun with it. I love seeing new faces in the game go out and do their thing.' Said Dodgers pitcher and Hall-of-Famer-in-waiting Clayton Kershaw: 'It's a lot of swings, man. It's not easy to do. When I used to hit, I was tired after taking six swings. I can't imagine doing that for three straight hours. 'If Shohei and Aaron Judge and those guys, if they had them all in there, it would be awesome. You can't expect those guys to do it every single year.' So keep the eight-man field but split it into two groups: four players in the traditional format, and four players in a one-round competition judged not only by how many home runs you hit but with how much flair you toss your bat after each one. Dodgers veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw, tapping gloves with teammate Will Smith after pitching in the second inning during the All-Star Game. (Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images) The creative and outrageous dunks in the NBA's slam dunk competition go viral. The All-Star bat flips would too. Advertisement 'With respect to an event like the Home Run Derby, we should continue to innovate,' Commissioner Rob Manfred said. 'It's fundamentally an entertainment product.' There's an idea, Rob. Run with it. 'The game piece of it? Fundamentally, I believe in the game,' Manfred said. 'I think what we have to do is continue to work with our very best players to make sure that they're here and showcasing themselves in front of a fan base that is really, really important to us over the long haul.' Right now, all the very best players are not here. When MLB announced the All-Star rosters, the league selected 65 players. By game time, with all the replacements for players that withdrew, the All-Star count was up to 81. Advertisement That meant that, for every four players announced as an All-Star, one chose not to play. 'Usually, when you think All-Star Game, you think probably the best at the time in the game right now are going to be playing,' Phillies All-Star designated hitter Kyle Schwarber said. Sometimes they are: On Tuesday, Schwarber was the most valuable player, with the winning swings in the swing-off. Schwarber and Kershaw noted that, for the most part, the position players are here, and the pitchers dominated the list of missing stars. Pitchers throw harder these days. They need time to recover. Tony Clark, the executive director of the players' union, talked about the need for players to find 'opportunities on the calendar to take a breather.' Advertisement Read more: Clayton Kershaw is the All-Star among All-Stars as NL defeats AL And, frankly, the All-Star Game does not mean nearly as much to players as it did before interleague play started 28 years ago. Winning one for the National League used to actually mean something. 'The All-Star Game then and the All-Star Game now are two completely different things,' Clark said. 'The requirements for players, the travel and logistics for their family and support, the day to day of a 162-game season is more complex and it's more challenging than it's ever been.' Yet in 1980, when the All-Star Game was played at Dodger Stadium, players had one free day before resuming the schedule. Today, players have two days. Advertisement And, in 1980, fans got to see the players they wanted to see. Should each team have an All-Star representative? Yes. Should managers feel compelled to use every one of those players? No way. On Tuesday, the National League used 13 pitchers and the American League 11. In 1980, each league used five pitchers. Steve Stone and Bob Welch each pitched (gasp) three innings. The top four batters in the American League lineup — Willie Randolph, Fred Lynn, Rod Carew and Reggie Jackson — each batted at least three times. Today's pitchers are reluctant to work even one inning in the All-Star Game if they pitched on the final weekend of the first half. So move the All-Star Game back one day to Wednesday, and move the Home Run Derby back one day to Tuesday. No longer would players have to scramble for Sunday night private jets to get to the All-Star Game by Monday morning. Advertisement As a bonus, MLB could play the Futures Game on Monday, when no other games are being played, instead of in relative invisibility because the league insists on putting what it says is a showcase event up against a full schedule of regular-season games. 'It would be great,' Clark said, 'to just have a conversation around the All-Star Game and talk about the All-Star Game and the great players that we have, doing so in a way that truly highlights the Midsummer Classic and truly puts players in a position where they are sprinting to come to the game.' And flipping their bats when they get here. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Steelers countdown to kickoff — No. 53: a history of the number and who wore it best
The Steelers countdown to kickoff is here — and we're at 53 days until Pittsburgh faces off against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. In the spirit of the countdown, we're taking a look at the history of No. 53 and the players who wore it best. Current Steelers No. 53 wearer: OLB Eku Leota Heading into the 2025 season, OLB Eku Leota is the current Steelers wearer of No. 53. The outside linebacker signed with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent in 2023 — where he would remain until being released on September 21, 2024. Less than two weeks later, the Steelers signed Leota to their practice squad — ultimately appearing in just one game in 2024 for Pittsburgh. He would sign a Future/Reserve contract this past January — but faces stiff competition to make the 53-man roster due to a loaded outside linebacker room. Last five Steelers to wear No. 53: Best No. 53 in Steelers history: C Maurkice Pouncey When it comes to No. 53, no Steeler wore it better than C Maurkice Pouncey. Drafted by Pittsburgh with the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft, Pouncey served as a long-time leader of the Steelers' offensive line for over a decade, tasked with protecting the legendary Ben Roethlisberger. He played in 134 career games and started every one of those contests for the Steelers. Pouncey's stellar play resulted in two First-Team All-Pro selections and three Second-Team All-Pro selections — while also being named to nine Pro Bowls. For his achievements, he was named to the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team — and there is no honor more befitting than to be recognized as the greatest Steeler to ever wear No. 53. For up-to-date Steelers coverage, follow us on X @TheSteelersWire and give our Facebook page a like.
