There’s no quicker way to get New England Patriots fans riled up than mentioning the possibility of the team trading for or signing an elite receiver.
So you can imagine the excitement when “Felger & Mazz” executive producer James Stewart noted a text message on Wednesday from an NFL talent evaluator, saying the Patriots were “sniffing around” San Francisco 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel.
Now, sniffing around could mean multiple things.
Firstly, it means the team has a pulse and likely enjoys things that smell and taste good. What could possibly be more delectable than Mac Jones throwing the football to a true game-breaker like Samuel?
But then again, who doesn’t enjoy fine dining? So it would make sense that the Patriots, like every other team in the league, do their due diligence by putting some feelers out there on Samuel.
There’s also the long-shot possibility that the Patriots really are interested, assuming they actually checked in on Samuel’s availability. The Nelson Agholor experiment was a complete failure, and the team’s top receiver, Jakobi Meyers, is a pending free agent. Throw in the fact that the Patriots have plenty of cap space to play with and things could get interesting.
Here are three scenarios that would need to happen for Samuel to end up in New England.