Patriots Trade Richard Seymour To Raiders

I haven't been covering the NFL at all during the pre-season, but the Patriots trading Richard Seymour to the Raiders is a complete shocker to me at this point in the pre-season, so I had to post something about it.

My first reaction to this trade is that the Patriots are going to use the money they save by trading Seymour to re-sign Vince Wilfork to a new contract. I think the Patriots see the value of having a big DT in the middle of their defensive line and are going to lock up Wilfork.

Jarvis Green and Ty Warren should be able to replace Seymour on the ends for the Patriots and I think New England will be running a 3-4 defense now. However, it might only look like a 3-4 defense on paper because I believe Adalius Thomas and Derrick Burgess are going to line up with the defensive line on the outside and rush the QB from time to time, which would give them more of a 4-3 look. Shoot it might even look like a 5 man line at some point.

Either way this is a bold move by the Pats, but not one that we should be completely surprised by, as their recent history suggests they are more than willing to part with their star players if they think they can add more value to the team in the future. Nobody is immune to this fact and it's pretty likely that even a team icon like Tom Brady will one day be shown the door once his productivity goes down or his contract demands hurt the team value in the long run.