Patriots Trade Jacoby Brissett for Phillip Dorsett
The Patriots are trading QB Jacoby Brissett to the Colts for WR Phillip Dorsett, league source tells ESPN.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 2, 2017
How I would imagine Phillip Dorsett is feeling right now. pic.twitter.com/glTGloxu6K
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) September 2, 2017
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When was the last time Boston/New England teams went a week without being the center of the sports news cycle? Four years maybe? Since before the Red Sox last championship season? I’ll concede that the Pats trading their 3rd string quarterback for a wideout isn’t the Kyrie Erving trade, but it is a big deal. With some pretty goddamned big implications for the future of the franchise.
And so an off-season of surprising moves continues. Surprising to me especially, as this trade extends my Wrong About Everything the Patriots Do streak to about 50 consecutive moves. I never thought they’d be a major player in free agency, and they spent huge money on the top cornerback available. I said they’d never value a wide receiver enough to trade their first round pick for one and they did for Brandin Cooks. I said they’d trade Jimmy Garoppolo. And just yesterday I said there’s no way they’d go into the season with just two quarterbacks and that Brissett’s performance in the last preseason game cemented his spot. And yet here we are.
I’ll talk about Phillip Dorsett in a second. But I’d be burying the lede if I didn’t state the obvious. That this looks for all the world like they are preparing for a future with Jimmy G on their roster, if not their starter. There’s simply no other way to consider this. If they continued to develop Brissett you could easily see them tender Garoppolo and trade him. Or just thank him for his time, hand him a box to put his stuff in and send him on his way. Regardless, he’s getting paid next year. And with no other quarterback gestating in the team’s womb, he’ll be paid in Kraftbucks. He’ll have to be. Whether that means they pay him franchise quarterback money to hold a Microsoft Surface all season or this means the end of the line for Brady, don’t ask me. I’m the guy with the wrongness streak going. But it’s going to be the biggest story of 2018. If not the biggest story since Brady took over 16 years ago.
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Now to Dorsett. You can count me among the people who laughed his balls off at the Colts when they took him with the 29th pick in the 2015 draft. . That’s no knock on Dorsett, who was a first round prospect, with insane explosiveness, 10 touchdowns on just 40 receptions at Miami and a ridiculous 24 yards per reception. It’s just that with a defense that couldn’t stop a nose bleed (Copyright, Bart Scott. All rights reserved) and a space eater like Malcom Brown on the board, Ryan Grigson opted for TY Hilton II: Tokyo Drift.
But to call Dorsett a disappointment in Indy would be an insult to regular, every day disappointments. He was only targeted 39 times as a rookie. And in what should have been his Year 2 bounce, he played more than 20 snaps only once in their last 10 games. Granted the Colts played a lot of 2-TE sets with Jack Doyle and Dwayne Allen. But still. That is third wide receiver playing time. Which is not what you use a first round pick on.
But what the Patriots are getting is value. A third round, third string QB you hoped you’d never have to play for a 24-year-old with Road Runner speed they hope can develop into another option for Brady with Julian Edelman out. I’m always a little leery of these Colts players and their ability to adapt to the Patriots system. But they’ll not have to ask him to do a lot. So who knows? Certainly not me. The most surprising thing about this is that Belichick is still capable of surprising me.