There apparently wasn’t much of a trade market for quarterback Ryan Mallett.
Despite talk that the Patriots might get a mid-round draft pick in trading Mallett, they gave him up today for only a conditional 2016 seventh-round pick. That’s what the Texans gave up to acquire Mallett, according to ESPN.
It’s unknown what the conditions are, but the deal likely includes provisions based on Mallett’s playing time or how long he remains on the Texans’ roster, so that the Texans could end up sending New England a sixth-round pick if Mallett becomes Houston’s starter.
Bottom line, teams just weren’t interested in giving up anything of real value to acquire Mallett, whom the Patriots drafted in the third round of the 2011 NFL draft. A late pick a year and a half from now isn’t nothing, but it’s next to nothing. And that’s what the Patriots settled for.
In Houston, Mallett will be reunited with head coach Bill O’Brien, who coached Mallett as an assistant in New England. O’Brien may see something in Mallett, but Bill Belichick didn’t see enough in Mallett to make him worth keeping, as long as the Patriots could get anything of even moderate value in return.