Bean: I still hate the Jacoby Brissett trade

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You don’t like the trade. I don’t either. Who knows if the guy will be a long-term starter, but he’s at least proven worthy of that shot. The Patriots didn’t get enough. 

This isn’t about Jimmy Garoppolo. I am, of course, still dwelling on the Jacoby Brissett trade. 

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I didn’t like it at the time. I’ve hated it more and more with each passing second. Brissett for Phillip Dorsett? On paper, it was moving your third quarterback for a former first-round pick* at a position of need. Yet so far the only payoff for the Patriots has been the roster spot created by not keeping a third quarterback. 

*STOP SAYING “FORMER FIRST-ROUND PICK.” I’m going to lose my mind over this one. Really I am. A player does not lose their draft status. I suppose they do when they die, but that’s because they’re pretty much a former everything they were before they died. Anyway, Phillip Dorsett is an alive person. When he was drafted, he *became* a first-round pick. Now he’s still that selection, the 29th overall in the 2015 draft. He *was* drafted. He *is* a first-round pick. That status as a first-round pick has not changed. 

I’ll tell you what has changed, though: the arrow in which that first-round promise was pointing. This isn’t the poo-on-Phillip-Dorsett hour. It’s just a reminder that Dorsett was still finding his way in the league (three receiving touchdowns on 51 receptions through two seasons) when the Pats acquired him. 

Since coming to New England, Dorsett has done very little. He’s got four catches on the season and just once since Week 3. The Patriots haven’t found much use for him, even with the injuries they’ve endured at the receiver position. 

Now, if Chris Hogan’s shoulder (which reportedly won’t need surgery) becomes an ongoing issue, that would probably mean more opportunity for Dorsett. So far, however, he hasn’t been much more than a spare part. 

And maybe a spare part is what the Patriots considered Brissett to be. Yet even if he was, he was a spare part at the most important position of the field. He’s started seven of the Colts’ eight games with Andrew Luck out and has been completely mediocre. Eight touchdowns, four picks, 19th in the league in passing yards. 

Moving Brissett allowed the Pats to keep someone like a Geneo Grissom, Cole Croston or Ted Karras on the roster. Fine. Whatever. But if they liked Brissett, a player on whom they’d spent a third-round pick in 2016 (see how I didn’t call him a “former third-rounder?”), they’d have kept him. 

And right now it’s looking like that should have been the move. Brissett has shown improvement in Indianapolis, which would run contrary to any concerns that he may have plateaued with the Pats. He certainly would have been a better longterm insurance policy behind Tom Brady once Garoppolo departed, which he now has. 

As we question Belichick the GM’s moves since the offseason, Stephon Gilmore and the handling of the tight end position get plenty of attention. The Jacoby Brissett trade doesn’t get as much as it should. 
 

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