Patriots stand pat at trade deadline, and that's OK

They’re gonna dance with what brung ‘em. They’re gonna ride or die. All they need to win is in that there room. Don’t you forget it.

I don’t disagree with any of that.

The NFL trade deadline came and went and the New England Patriots didn’t do a blessed thing. Didn’t do a blessed thing despite the fact Bill Belichick put a neon, OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign out for every other team in the league to see.

There will be whining.

• Perry's report card for the Pats vs the Bills

No wide receiver? No running back? No edge defender? No linebacker? No safety?

How come the Rams, Texans, Eagles and Ravens could get players (Dante Fowler, DeMaryius Thomas, Golden Tate and Ty Montgomery, respectively) and the Patriots couldn’t?

This “Daddy, Daddy, did you bring me anything?” attitude’s been fed by the Patriots activity at past trade deadlines, the fact they were involved in at least minor discussions on scads of players and the notion that this is an all-caps EVENT on the NFL calendar when it’s actually more like a walk through a thrift store.

The Patriots aren’t a perfect team. They’re slow and thin at the linebacker position, need more pass-rush punch, have no tight end depth and were last seen using wide receivers at running back.

But there’s no panacea out there for their minor ailments. The Patriots looked at the cost of doing business and the options on their roster and concluded that, if some guys get healthy, others keep developing and others play to their normal level, spending on a rental didn’t make sense.

This isn’t the NBA, NHL or MLB where the addition of one player that another team is giving up on can alter everything. In the NFL, trade deadline acquisitions are more duct tape than repairs.

There are exceptions. The 2012 addition of Aqib Talib was one. But at wide receiver, where the Patriots were doing tire-kicking on players like Thomas, the instant-impact is far from assured.

Take Tate, for instance. The Eagles got him in exchange for a third-round pick. Tate was very affordable. The Eagles will be paying him the balance of his $3.75M salary over the final nine weeks of the season. Compared to Thomas ($8.5M) or Desean Jackson ($10M), that’s reasonable.

But giving up a third-round pick with a possible rental (Tate is up at the end of the year) to fill a position where the Patriots have players wouldn’t be good value.

Eagles GM Howie Roseman pounded his chest a little bit about the deal.  

“The message to our fans, to our players, to our coaches, to everyone in this organization is our foot’s always going to be on the gas,” Roseman said  “We’re always trying to win. …What we can do now is try to do that for this season and this moment.”

The problem right there is conflating “trying to win” with doing something – anything – to “send a message.” It may work brilliantly. For Philly.

And for the Rams, eight games from pass-rusher Dante Fowler in exchange for a third and a fifth may be the move that puts an already stacked defense over the top.

For the Patriots, the prices weren’t right and deals weren’t done. That doesn’t mean they aren’t “trying to win” any less than Philly. Or the Rams.

Meanwhile, the opportunity to add isn’t gone just because 4 p.m. passed. The additions made by the teams that were active will lead to other players being cut loose. Signing a player who got released doesn’t carry the same cache as trading for him but what’s the difference?

There were many mad-face emojis shared on Twitter Tuesday afternoon about the Patriots inactivity which, to me, is a head-scratcher.

Who’s busier than the Patriots, Bill Belichick and Nick Caserio when it comes to roster churn? Not many.

Quibbling with moves made or not made is part of the business.

I flailed my arms about the team not approaching Nate Solder before free agency opened and keeping him off the market. I sniffed at the prospect of a seventh-round castoff named Trent Brown being the left tackle answer.

Who got that right? They did.

Last year at this time, the Patriots gift-wrapped Jimmy Garoppolo to the Niners for a second-round pick out of some weird loyalty to Garoppolo. I still think they missed the boat by not turning that into a bidding war.

The Patriots are 6-2 and still haven’t played anything close to their best football for 60 minutes. They decided that there wasn’t an available player out there who was going to get them to do that for a price they could accept.

That’s not about a lack of “trying to win.” That’s about discipline and faith in what you’ve already got.

I don’t hate it.

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