Patriots ideal trade deadline plan to help Drake Maye should be clear

The Drake Maye era has officially begun for the New England Patriots. Maye has taken over for Jacoby Brissett and he looks to be exactly what New England thought he would be when they selected him – maybe even better.

Through three games (two starts) Maye has thrown for 541 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. He's carried the ball 10 times for 68 yards on the ground as well. But Maye really doesn't have much help at all, so the fact that he's putting up numbers as impressive as these is really surprising.

The Patriots may have the worst wide receiving core in the entire league, which is really saying something because of how injuries have depleted a ton of rosters this season. This wide receiving core is so bad that it could be stunting Maye's growth as a quarterback.

Of course, a lot of the offense falls on the quarterback, but if the wide receivers are dropping passes or not getting separation, there's not much that Maye can really do.

So if the Patriots want to prioritize his development, they need to go out and get him a solid pass catcher and NFL insiders Jacob Robinson and Dianna Russini have the perfect trade target for New England.

Patriots-Panthers could connect for a trade to send pass catching help to New England

Russini and Robinson of The Athletic pitched the idea of the Patriots trading their extra third round pick in 2025 to the Carolina Panthers for Diontae Johnson.

"Patriots acquire Diontae Johnson, sending the Panthers a 2025 third round pick. The Panthers have zero reason to accept anything less, as they’ll receive a third-round compensatory pick if Johnson signs a decent contract elsewhere in 2025," They wrote. "The Patriots have an extra third and $35 million in cap space this year and $137 million next season (tops in the league), so they may be willing to extend Johnson immediately. Drake Maye deserves at least one WR who can separate."

For each team, this makes sense. The Patriots may be a bit weary of the deal because Johnson is a rental, as of now, but New England would have the chance to sign him to a longer contract extension before anybody else gets a chance to, if they make this deal.

For the Panthers, it's just another step toward their rebuild. It would hurt the chances of Bryce Young turning his season around, but Young really hasn't shown any reason for optimism this year, even with Johnson and Adam Thielen.

The Panthers could be looking to completely gut their roster.