Latest On Tom Brady
That’s a pretty bold statement to make, and Schefter is obviously one of the most well-connected people around the league so he wouldn’t say something like that lightly. The Patriots are coming off yet another Super Bowl win and have started the season 7-0, but thanks to a unique contract maneuver with voidable years, Brady is set to become a free agent at the end of the 2019 campaign. Brady’s deal includes a provision that precludes the Pats from franchise-tagging him, so he’s truly free to walk if he wants to. We’ll surely hear a lot more about his future with New England before the end of the season.
There’s been a lot of talk about Tom Brady‘s future recently, thanks to ESPN’s Adam Schefter hinting on this past week’s Monday Night Football broadcast that Brady might be eyeing a new team in 2020. Appearing on ESPN’s ‘Get Up’ earlier this week Schefter doubled down, per Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston. Schefter laid out the three possible options: Brady retiring, Brady returning to the Patriots in 2020, or Brady going to a new team. Schefter then said that “staying in New England, to me, would seem like the least likely option of the three.”
That’s a pretty bold statement to make, and Schefter is obviously one of the most well-connected people around the league so he wouldn’t say something like that lightly. The Patriots are coming off yet another Super Bowl win and have started the season 7-0, but thanks to a unique contract maneuver with voidable years, Brady is set to become a free agent at the end of the 2019 campaign. Brady’s deal includes a provision that precludes the Pats from franchise-tagging him, so he’s truly free to walk if he wants to. We’ll surely hear a lot more about his future with New England before the end of the season.
- Speaking of the Patriots, their former receiver Antonio Brown is still looking for work. It’s been made clear that Brown won’t be picked up before the league includes its investigation into his sexual assault allegations, and the two sides appear to be in a stalemate. Brown says he’s ready to interview with the league, people close to the embattled wideout told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (Twitter link). However, a separate source told Fowler that the league “feels like it’s waiting on Brown.” This type of confusion is par for the course for this whole saga. Meanwhile, Fowler notes that Brown continues to train on his own in Florida.
Latest On Patriots, Josh Gordon
Josh Gordon may have a third NFL employer soon. The Patriots wide receiver currently sits on IR but is expected to be healthy in a week or two, according to Josina Anderson of ESPN.com. This would clear the way to the New England departure that’s been expected.
The Patriots used a minor injury designation on Gordon and must jettison him from their IR list once he’s again healthy. Should this transaction take place after Tuesday, the 28-year-old wideout will be subject to waivers. All players cut after the trade deadline must pass through waivers.
By not releasing Gordon now, the Patriots may be banking on the talented pass catcher being claimed by a struggling team rather than one the defending Super Bowl champions will be competing with for this year’s title. Waiver priority is now sorted by teams’ 2019 records.
The former Browns All-Pro is dealing with two knee contusions. Gordon missed the Patriots’ Week 7 game but has resumed sprinting. He has 20 receptions for 287 yards and a touchdown this season.
The eighth-year receiver represents far from a safe bet as a waiver claim, however, having suspensions nullify games in each season from 2012-18. Although, he was on pace for his first 1,000-yard season since 2013 last year and is attached to only a $2MM salary.
Minor NFL Transactions: 10/25/19
We don’t dance now, we make minor moves:
Baltimore Ravens
- Signed: DL Ufomba Kamalu (from Patriots practice squad)
Dallas Cowboys
- Released: DT Justin Hamilton
Philadelphia Eagles
- Promoted: DT Bruce Hector
Patriots Work Out Elijah McGuire
After the Patriots got done smoking the Jets, they took a look at one of their former running backs. On Friday, the Jets auditioned running back Elijah McGuire, as Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets. 
McGuire spent the last couple of seasons with the Jets, up until his recent release. The tailback drew solid reviews in Jets practice over the last two years, but his career 3.3 yards per carry average isn’t much to write home about.
Austin Walter, a Rice product, also showed his stuff for the Patriots. Walter recently auditioned for the Texans as well, so he may have an opportunity to stay in the great state of Texas.
If McGuire or Walter wind up with the Pats, they might get to make their New England debut against the Browns on Sunday. And, if they don’t, they might find a spot on the Patriots’ always-growing emergency list.
Patriots Trade Michael Bennett To Cowboys
Michael Bennett got his wish. On Thursday, the Patriots agreed to trade the defensive end to the Cowboys for a seventh-round pick that can turn into a sixth-round choice in 2021, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. 
Bennett clashed with Pats brass earlier this month and led to an argument between him and defensive line coach Bret Bielema. Soon after, the veteran received a one-game suspension for airing his frustrations, which stemmed from a perceived lack of playing time.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has never been one to tolerate shenanigans and isn’t big into sentimentality. The team was high on Bennett after acquiring him from the Eagles in March – and even gave him a pay bump – but they haven’t had much use for him this year. The defensive end appeared in six games, but started just once. In three of those games, he saw less than 20 defensive snaps. In his last time out, against the Giants, he didn’t see the field until the second quarter.
“On Friday, I had a philosophical disagreement with my position coach that has led to my suspension,” Bennett said in a statement. “I apologize to my teammates for any distraction this may have caused.”
Apparently, the distraction was enough to earn him a one-way ticket out of Foxboro. Meanwhile, the Cowboys now have a stronger DE rotation that features Bennett, Demarcus Lawrence, Robert Quinn, Kerry Hyder, and Dorance Armstrong. Losing Tyrone Crawford for the year wasn’t ideal, but the Cowboys have gained back a lot of ground by adding Bennett to the mix.
In 2018, Bennett tallied nine sacks for Philly, marking his highest total since 2015. So far this year, the three-time Pro Bowler has 2.5 sacks on the stat sheet, giving him 65.5 in total across ~9.5 seasons.
The Cowboys are on their bye this week, so Bennett will have plenty of time to get acclimated and learn the new playbook. Then, on Monday Nov. 4, he’ll get to don his new threads for the first time when the Cowboys face the Giants. Fun fact: He faced the Giants twice last year and notched a sack in each game.
Latest On Antonio Brown
There hasn’t been much movement on the NFL’s investigation of Antonio Brown. The league has yet to interview the former Patriots wide receiver, according to a source who spoke with PFT’s Mike Florio. 
There are teams interested in signing Brown, but none of them are willing to add him to the roster while the investigation is still in progress. Meanwhile, the NFL hasn’t said whether Brown would be immediately placed on paid leave if he’s signed. Any team that were to sign Brown right now would risk having to pay him, without playing him, which is obviously unpalatable. If the NFL were to give clarity on that front, things might be different for the wide receiver, despite the enormous controversy surrounding him.
At least, that’s what agent Drew Rosenhaus is hoping for.
“It’s unfortunate things didn’t work out with the Patriots,” agent Drew Rosenhaus said in September. “But Antonio is healthy and is looking forward to his next opportunity in the NFL. He wants to play the game he loves and he hopes to play for another team soon.”
Brown, 31, has caught 841 passes for 11,253 yards over the course of his ten-year career. The bulk of those catches and yards came between 2011 and 2018: he saw limited time as a sixth-round rookie with the Steelers and appeared in only one game for the Pats this year.
Patriots Adjust Shaq Mason’s Deal
The Patriots have converted $1.75MM of guard Shaq Mason’s base salary into a signing bonus, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. The move will create an extra $1.4MM in cap room for New England, giving them the space required to add wide receiver Mohamed Sanu to the payroll. 
Before the 2018 season, Mason inked a new five-year deal with $45MM in new money. That pact included a $12MM signing bonus, $5MM in incentives, and roughly $30MM in the first three years. Now, he’s made a simple adjustment on his contract to help bring Sanu into the fold.
Sanu didn’t come cheap for the Pats, but he’ll give Tom Brady another major weapon to help replace Josh Gordon. The Pats placed Gordon on IR on Wednesday with the belief that he will not be able to suit up again this year. Gordon, meanwhile, believes that he will be able to play again, so it’s a situation to monitor.
In other Pats news: the Patriots changed their minds about releasing tight end Eric Tomlinson. Tomlinson has not been released, the Pats say, so he may have a chance to build off of the season-high 38 snaps he logged against the Jets on Monday.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 10/23/2019
Today’s practice squad updates:
Atlanta Falcons
- Signed: WR Devin Gray
Denver Broncos
- Signed: WR Kelvin McKnight
- Released: OL Tyler Jones
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Signed: DT Brian Price
Los Angeles Chargers
- Signed: WR Jalen Guyton
- Released: OT Tyree St. Louis
New England Patriots
- Signed: OL Aaron Monteiro
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: S Trae Elston, TE Jason Vander Laan
Patriots WR Josh Gordon’s Future Uncertain, Placed On IR
For a moment it appeared that Josh Gordon‘s season is over. On Wednesday, the Patriots placed the wide receiver on injured reserve with a knee injury (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Field Yates). However, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweeted out that Gordon believes he is close to returning to play. Garafolo opines that “he’s likely done with the #Patriots but could be available for teams as a free agent soon.”
According to Albert Breer of MMQB.com, that a source says Gordon should be medically cleared to play soon. Mentioning that his injury is minor and he recently ran at 22 miles per hour on a treadmill in a recent workout.
Gordon was forced out of the Patriots’ Thursday night win over the Giants a few weeks back and was unable to take the field against the Jets. The Pats did just fine without him against Gang Green, but the injury pushed them to trade for Falcons receiver Mohamed Sanu on Tuesday. At the time, the trade was a bit of a head-scratcher. Now, it makes more sense. The Patriots are down a second-round pick after the deal, but they have a quality replacement for Gordon in Sanu.
This development is the next chapter in Gordon’s rollercoaster career. Back in 2013, Gordon was asserting himself as one of the best receivers in football. Even within a mediocre Browns offense, Gordon made 87 receptions for nine touchdowns and a league best 1,646 receiving yards. What fans at the time failed to realize was Gordon’s ongoing battle with substance abuse.
Gordon’s difficulties with substances, especially marijuana, combined with the NFL’s severe substance abuse policy led him to receive numerous suspensions, including a year long ban for the 2015 season. He attempted to return to the Browns in 2016, but failed another drug test and eventually stepped away, missing another season.
He finally returned to the field in 2017 where he appeared in five games for Cleveland and hauled in 18 receptions for 335 yards. In 2018, after starting the season with the Browns, the Patriots decided to take a flier on the receiver and he was in the midst of a productive season before he once again had to step away from football for his own mental health.
The future is once again uncertain for Gordon. Assuming the Patriots do grant Gordon’s release, now that Sanu and Emmanuel Sanders have been traded, other teams in the market for receiving upgrades would surely line up to give Gordon another opportunity.
Minor NFL Transactions: 10/23/19
Here are today’s minor transactions:
Cincinnati Bengals
- Released: WR Damion Willis
Denver Broncos
- Claimed: DL Jonathan Harris (from Bears)
Detroit Lions
- Promoted: RB Paul Perkins
Houston Texas
- Promoted: WR Steven Mitchell Jr.
New England Patriots
- Signed: DB Justin Bethel
- Released: DB Jordan Richard, TE Eric Tomlinson
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: LB Stephone Anthony, CB Johnson Bademosi
Philadelphia Eagles
- Placed on IR: DT Hassan Ridgeway
Seattle Seahawks
- Waived: G Jordan Roos