Ryan Mallett has had a pretty good preseason so far, but that does not mean the New England Patriots won't consider trading him for the right deal.
Mallett could improve a lot of team's depth at quarterback, but the strong play of rookie Jimmy Garoppolo for New England has made the Pat's consider making a deal that could see Mallett heading somewhere else.
The St. Louis Rams, who just lost starter Sam Bradford to another ACL injury, just after he had surgery last year on the same leg, have to be taking a long look at Mallett, among other quarterbacks looking for starting work.
As a result, Mallett appears to be available for potential trades, as noted by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, who says the Patriots are keeping him out of the teams last preseason game in case another team is interested in trading for him.
Neither the Rams nor the Patriots have given any indication that this trade is set to go, but the Patriots had made it clear before that they were not overly interested in letting Mallett go, so if they are holding him out, their actions speak for them. Also, now that Bradford is down, it makes a great deal of sense that the two parties might be interested in a trade. Mallett has backed up Tom Brady since the Patriots drafted him in the third round of the 2011 draft. Both of Brady's two previous backups, Cleveland's Brian Hoyer, and Minnesota's Matt Cassel, have gone on to become starters.
Some have speculated that Kirk Cousins, who backs up Robert Griffin III in Washington, and Mark Sanchez, who is backing up Nick Foles in Philadelphia, could also be on the Ram's list, but they are both two valuable to their respective teams, or as in Sanchez's case, have no interest in playing for the Rams. Also, some have speculated that Tim Tebow would be a good fit, or think maybe Michael Vick who is backing up Geno Smith for the Jets could work out.
Right now, with Bradford down, the Rams have turned to Shaun Hill, who, at 34, has not started an NFL game since 2010.
