Caserio indicates trade winds could blow

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By Tom E. Curran
CSNNE.com Patriots InsiderFollow @tomecurran
FOXBORO - A GM shopping for that specialthird cornerback this roster-building season has two choices.

He can go out and try to swing a deal for the player he wants in the next few days. Or he can take his chances by kicking through the detritus of his fellow GMs on Tuesday when NFL rosters cut down from 90 to 80.

Patriots personnel man Nick Caserio pointed out Wednesday that trade conversations in advance of next Tuesday's cutdown will be frequent.

"Generally speaking, about this time of the yearmaybe even after the third preseason gameteams will probably have a little bit more dialogue amongst themselves," said Caserio. "There will be some discussion back and forth. Teams might say, Were heavy here; were light here, so its more just, I would say, normal conversation. I would anticipate that some of the discussions, probably after the weekend, will probably pick up a little bit more, and I would say thats probably normal as it is any time of the year."

The Patriots, for instance, have a bevy of defensive linemen. Every team in the league knows some of them are going to be heaved overboard. So what's the harm in Caserio lifting the phone and calling a fellow GM about unloading a soon-to-be-cut Landon Cohen in exchange for a sixth-rounder in next April's draft? None. There is none.

Or you can try and hold up a team like the Giants by dangling a Jonathan Wilhite in front of their corner-hungry faces.

Ahead of the cutdown, scouts will be all over this weekend's games. The aim istrying to forecast which players will be cut by their current teams that could have use on their club. And then the race is on.

"It's a long night in the league office just to get to the names on the waiver wire," said Caserio, who divulged the league's decision to allow teams to cut to 80 players instead of the originally planned 75. "When those players are released, well go through the waiver wire and if there are any particular players that we want to investigate further then well do it.

"Its very similar to, I would say, what happens on that last Saturday of sort of the final cut downmaybe not quite as extensive from a numbers standpoint, but theres stillyoull have the evening and the next day to figure out if you want to make a claim for someone? Is there a player that is terminated that maybe you want to bring in for a visit or a physical?"

It's the same process the Patriots go through withmost every unemployed player from Darren Sharper to Clinton Portis to T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

"There are two weeks left in the preseason," said Caserio. "Weve kind of started the process of organizing and kind of prioritizing some of the players that potentially could be available that may be able to add to our team."

And which ones they may make available to others. There will be some sleep missed by the scouting staffs around the league in the next few days, that's for sure.

Tom E. Curran can be reached at tcurran@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Tom on Twitter at http:twitter.comtomecurran.

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