Chris Gasper: The Patriots are unwilling to accept what they are

Chris Gasper of The Boston Globe joins Felger and Mazz every Friday to discuss the latest in Boston Sports. This week, Gasper discussed the New England Patriots deciding not to sell at the NFL Trade Deadline and wonders, what are they building towards?

Gasper in response to being asked about the Patriots decisions at the NFL Trade Deadline...

Chris Gasper: What's the advantage for you as a team if you end up with seven wins instead of five? Or you end up with eight wins instead of six? What does that do for you at the end of the day in terms of moving you closer to contending for championships again? I just don't see the upside.

Felger: So my view on that, Chris, is that the Commanders shouldn't be held up here as some sort of model, like "the Commanders got it right". I would never do that. In fact, I think the reason the Commanders sold is because they're the Commanders. They're losers. And losing has become okay. And that's sort of the slippery slope that you inhibit there when you intentionally try and lose. And that's what I think they're doing and that's why they're losers. And I would not want to be that team. So I know it's sort of an intangible thing, and you're talking more about, "lose a few more games, get a higher draft pick that's better for the future". I'm looking more at just sort of the juice, the karma, the karma behind the whole thing. You start doing that and you start being that and you become that. That's what the Commanders are. It's how I look at it.

Chris Gasper: First of all, the commanders have a new owner, so he's not attached to that losing. You can't blame that losing on him. And also, aren't the Patriots the franchise that maximizes value? Can't you look at the Commanders and say they Maximized value. I'm not advocating tanking. This is where I think people get confused and it gets conflated, I don't want the Patriots to tank. I'm not saying intentionally lose. If I thought they could sign these guys, I'd say keep them. But I don't think they're going to sign them, so why let them walk for nothing? You know, you're saying like, okay, there's some sort of karma thing, so two years ago, you won ten games, you made the playoffs. Did you build off that last year? Last year you went into the regular season finale and if you won, you made the playoffs. Have you built off that this year? There's no connection. You're not building anything. There's nothing. There is no good karma. There is nothing that you're building towards. Tanking is intentionally trying to lose. I look at what Washington did, I don't think they're intentionally trying to lose games. I just think they looked at what they were building and said,"this isn't good enough, we're probably not going to sign these guys and we don't want to invest in them. And if we do invest in them, even though we like them as players, it's not really going to change our plight in the NFL, we have to try something different", I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

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It's time for the Week 9 edition of the 98.5 The Sports Hub New England Patriots Mailbag. As the calendar flips to November, there's certainly no shortage of topics to discuss.

On one hand, there's the recently passed NFL trade deadline. Despite speculations they'd sell, the team ended up standing pat and not moving any of their players on expiring contracts.

READ MORE:

--Patriots stand pat at NFL trade deadline
--How Tuesday's trade deadline changes Sunday's matchup
--Week 8 Ups & Downs

There was also another loss on Sunday, as the Patriots fell 31-17 to the Dolphins to fall to 2-6. Their odds to make the playoffs have now dipped to three percent.

What are Patriots fans pondering coming away from a busy few days? Let's get to the questions...

I don't know if 'disappointed' is exactly the right word, but I did find it curious. At 2-6 there isn't much hope at a postseason run, and with just 43 players currently under contract for next year future assets are crucial to rebuilding the roster. Trading away players on expiring contracts would have been a good way to add assets for the future, which the team elected not to do. If those players now walk in free agency, it will represent a major missed opportunity.

That being said, there is one way the Patriots can justify how they handled this year's deadline, which leads us to our next question...

A big part of the reason the Patriots are in the roster predicament their in is their inability to retain young talent. As Zack Cox of NESN pointed out this week, between players they selected in the top three rounds (basically all top-100 picks) from 2014-2019, ZERO of the 19 went on to sign a second contract with the team.

While the Patriots didn't sign most of those players because they failed to hit on the picks, there are others such as Joe Thuney and Damien Harris that certainly were logical candidates for second contracts.

Now, that 2020 draft class is up for extensions. If the Patriots want to start really rebuilding their roster, they need a foundation of core young players under team control. Guys like Kyle Dugger and Mike Onwenu certainly would fit that description if re-signed. If the Patriots end up keeping them around with long-term contracts, it would make sense in hindsight why the team didn't trade them.

As for Josh Uche, his situation is a bit different because of his projected market, and scheme fit. If the Patriots were going to trade one of the three yesterday, he would have made the most sense.

It would make a lot of sense for the Patriots to keep Mike Onwenu around and play him at right tackle. Not only is he a good right tackle, but adding a starting-caliber tackle is a significant undertaking. If Onwenu doesn't come back the Patriots will need to add two this offseason, with Trent Brown sounding committed to testing the open market this spring.

However, the team has said in the past they view him as a guard long-term. If that's how they've evaluated him, they likely wouldn't be urgent to bring him back after investing heavily in the guard position in the draft the last two years.

With Kendrick Bourne and DeVante Parker both suffering injuries last week, somebody will have to step up in the Patriots' wide receiver room. JuJu Smith-Schuster and Demario Douglas will get the top two spots, but a third receiver will need to emerge between Kayshon Boutte, Tyquan Thornton, and Jalen Reagor.

Boutte has been a healthy scratch since making his debut in Week 1. If the Patriots are going to give him another chance, this is it. However, the team seems high on Reagor, and likely has more motivation to see if Thornton can play to the level he was expected to when drafted in the second round in 2022.

Alex Barth is a writer and digital producer for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Looking for a podcast guest? Let him know on Twitter @RealAlexBarth or via email at abarth@985TheSportsHub.com.