Could Tom Brady be traded mid-season?

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are off to a rough start in 2014. Is there any scenario where the Patriots would actually pursue trades for Brady mid-season?

To say that the New England Patriots are in a rut might be understating the situation: Tom Brady and company are reeling, coming off a gruesome loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in which they were dominated in every facet of the game.

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Their 2-2 start feels worse than it is, thanks in large part to the fact that New England played quite poorly and still stumbled to a victory over the Oakland Raiders in one of those games.

Struggles on offense have to rank at the top of the list of concerns for the Patriots. Many of those problems can be attributed to the lack of help around Brady, though the 37-year-old veteran has struggled fairly significantly on his own as well. With Brady’s future in New England perhaps a little bit murky already, is there a chance that the Patriots could deal him during the 2014 season?

Mid-season trades are rare in the NFL, of course, but in a piece for Boston.com Eric Wilbur opines that the Patriots should consider trying to find a trade for the face of their franchise this season. Wilbur notes that it makes sense for financial reasons due to the structure of Brady’s deal and it would allow the Patriots to clear the path for Jimmy Garoppolo.

What teams would be potential landing spots in this hypothetical scenario? Wilbur offers the following suggestions:

"The Arizona Cardinals are 3-0 coming off the bye week, and face an October schedule that includes the Broncos, Redskins, Raiders, and Eagles. If they make it through that stretch 3-1, and are in serious contention at the trading deadline, would they consider surrendering a package that could land them Brady to play in place of Drew Stanton and the injured Carson Palmer?The other is in Houston, where old friend Bill O’Brien has the Texans off to a 3-1 start, even with Ryan Fitzpatrick (five touchdowns, five interceptions, QB rating of 86.2) doing everything he can to manage otherwise. O’Brien, in his first year as head coach with the Texans, is obviously familiar with Brady thanks to his time with the Patriots as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, and rather to be forced to turn to former Patriots backup quarterback Ryan Mallett, perhaps there’s some possibility that he picks up the phone and dials Bill Belichick to ask just how much more Brady has left."

One of the key points of Wilbur’s argument is that Brady has no help in New England and that he would gain that help in those places. That is only true to a limited extent, however, as long as Brady is playing as poorly as he has so far. Besides, we are just one good Brady game away from putting all of these conversations to rest.

The Patriots have been built on the stability of their Bill Belichick-Tom Brady duo, so it is unlikely they would make a hasty mid-season call to break those two up. Still, these are intriguing possibilities to consider.

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