New England Patriots Open to Trading Kyle Dugger

Dugger has spent the last four full seasons starting for the Patriots, but has now seemed to fall behind Jaylinn Hawkins in the pecking order at his position.

It seems that could mean he won't be a Patriot for much longer.

According to NFL Insider Jordan Schultz, the Patriots have been open to trading Dugger.

Dugger signed a four-year contract worth $58 million just last offseason and that deal is going to be a big piece of this.

Trading him would save the Patriots $10.76 million in cap space for the 2025 season and another $8 million for next season.

However, it's going to be tough for the Pats to find somebody to buy in on that contract.

Dugger wasn't great last season. In 13 games, he defended just four passes and didn't record an interception. Meanwhile, he allowed opposing QBs to complete 76.1% of the passes they threw his way with an average of 10.2 yards per completion and allowed six touchdowns.

He also missed a career-high 15.6% of his attempted tackles.

Now he's coming off of offseason ankle surgery.

If the Patriots can't find a trade partner, they might just have to hang onto Dugger. If they release him they only save $1.01 million in cap space for this season.

This is looking like a bad contract after just one year as it seems Dugger is either going to be traded for a meager return or he's going to spend the 2025 season as a backup before likely being cut by the Patriots after the season is over.