FOXBOROUGH – The juxtaposition between the Washington Commanders and Patriots franchises is striking.
You have one team, the Patriots, who have been extremely successful after a 20-year dominant dynastic run. That has included a respected owner (Robert Kraft) to go with a Hall of Fame coach (Bill Beichick) and quarterback (Tom Brady). The other team, the Commanders, had an owner embroiled in controversy (Dan Snyder) before selling his franchise. There was no consistency with their many starting quarterbacks or head coaches over the last two decades.
Since 2000, the Patriots have six Super Bowl championships. In that same span, Washington has been to the playoffs five times. If you had to pick a team, the Patriots have easily been the better-run organization and it’s not close.
That’s why the contrast between the two clubs during Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline was striking for another reason – the Commanders look better suited for the future.
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Heading into Sunday’s matchup between the teams, neither squad is in the running this season. Washington is 3-5 while the Patriots are 2-6. Yet, during Tuesday’s deadline, the Commanders sold while the Patriots did nothing. Washington traded arguably their two best players – edge rushers Montez Sweat and Chase Young – in two different deals for a second and third-round pick.
Washington now heads into next offseason with three picks in the top 50 and five draft picks in the 100 selections. They also have $90 million in cap space. The Commanders are rebuilding and made it easier to do so since they currently have a first-rounder, two seconds, and two third-round picks.
Rebuilding in the NFL is hard. You have to spend your cap space wisely and also hit on your draft picks. As we see every year, neither free agency nor the draft is a sure thing. What Washington did on Tuesday at the very least made it easier for the franchise to move forward. After all, the more draft picks you have, the better odds that you’ll hit on a prospect.
Comparatively speaking, it’s a stark contrast to what the Patriots have going for themselves.
According to Overthecap, the Patriots are estimated to have $92.79 million in cap space in 2024. That’s the third most in the NFL. The Commanders are next at $91.5 million in estimated cap space.
Unlike the Commanders, the Patriots don’t have any extra picks in the first five rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft. That’s because they opted to not trade any of their upcoming free agents. Unlike Washington, the Patriots held on to the likes of Josh Uche, Michael Onwenu, and Kyle Dugger.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the Patriots turned down solid offers. It could also be a sign that the ‘right’ deal wasn’t available. Before the deadline, a source told MassLive that the Patriots would consider any “legit” offer that came through. A potential deal boiled down to what Bill Belichick and his personnel department defined as “legit.”
For Washington, that meant trading away their two best defensive players for Day 2 draft picks.
The Patriots inaction leaves them in a tough situation. With so much estimated cap space, it makes it unlikely the Patriots will recoup any comp picks for their potential free-agent losses. That’s something that was seen in 2021 when the Patriots lost Joe Thuney. Since they spent so much money that offseason, they lost their best offensive player for nothing.
The Patriots could re-sign their upcoming free agents and bring back Uche, Dugger, and Onwenu. At the very least, it would make Tuesday’s boring trade deadline not seem like a missed opportunity.
That being said, the Patriots approached their most recent draft in a way that it seemed like they were finding replacements for the above players after drafting safety/linebacker Marte Mapu (potential Dugger replacement), edge rusher Keion White (potential Uche replacement) and guards Sidy Sow and Atonio Mafi (potential Onwenu replacements).
Before that happens, however, it’s striking how similar the Patriots and Commanders seem to be heading into Sunday’s matchup. Washington is where they always are – near the bottom of the league. Meanwhile, the Patriots continue to descend into a place New England hasn’t been since the early 90s – to the bottom of the NFL.
This space isn’t unusual for the Washington franchise, but what’s surprising is that this team seems in a better position to rebuild. The juxtaposition between these two franchises used to be striking for a far different reason.
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