New England Patriots
“Those are two of my closest friends I talk to, but I mean, it’s a business at the end of the day.”
Kyle Dugger was traded by the Patriots on Tuesday. John Tlumacki/Boston Globe Staff
FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots shook up their locker room on Tuesday, trading away both Kyle Dugger and Keion White in separate transactions.
Dugger — who was New England’s longest-tenured player — was dealt to the Pittsburgh Steelers (along with a 2026 seventh-round pick) in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick.
White, a 2023 second-round selection by the Patriots, was traded to the San Francisco 49ers as part of the deal that has New England only recouping a 2026 sixth-round pick.
It was a largely underwhelming return for the Patriots, although both Dugger and White had seen their stock plummet this season as they struggled to carve out a set role in Mike Vrabel’s defense.
“I think that with just the timing of everything and where we’re at as a team, we felt like it was the right thing to do,” Vrabel said Wednesday. “We’ve got a lot of guys in that room, and we just felt like at this particular time, to make those moves that we made with him and Kyle.”
While it felt like a given that players with limited roles in Dugger and White were going to be dangled out on the trade market, those deals still further reinforced the reality that comes with life in pro sports — and the limited shelf life players can have with their respective teams.
“It hurt,” cornerback Christian Gonzalez said of the trades. “Those are two of my closest friends I talk to, but I mean, it’s a business at the end of the day. Happy for them. They get to get a new, fresh start. Here, we’re focused on the Falcons and getting ready for them.”
Dugger — a longtime stalwart at safety in both Bill Belichick and Jerod Mayo’s defenses in Foxborough — found himself pushed further down the depth chart during training camp, with safety Jaylinn Hawkins and rookie Craig Woodson earning starting roles during the summer.
But even with Hawkins leapfrogging Dugger in the lineup, the veteran safety said that Dugger was still a good friend and reliable teammate through the first eight weeks of the 2025 season.
“Me and Kyle, it’s tough when you create a relationship with somebody on and off the field on a personal level and you play together,” Hawkins said. “The chemistry is there. It’s deeper than just football. That’s the business, and that’s things I can’t control. The relationship we got is what I can control. The stuff he did here – he’s a great player. I know he’s going to succeed where he’s at.
Those are things I can’t control, but the relationship we built, the brotherhood we built in the locker room and outside the locker room, I can still maintain that relationship and send him a text. I know he’s going to do great things. He’s a great player. He’s a phenomenal player.”
Tuesday’s trades do limit some of the depth that New England now has both at safety and on the edge, although the Patriots could address those deficiencies by adding to the roster ahead of the NFL’s trade deadline on Nov. 4.
But Drake Maye noted that both he and his teammates still have full faith in whatever measures Eliott Wolf and the Patriots’ top brass make — be it Tuesday’s deals or any future moves.
“I think just trusting the big picture and what they’re doing in the front office, the coaching staff. Also reach out to those guys who have left the team, who spent time here and you got to create a relationship with them,” Maye said. “I remember Keion in college had three sacks on me his last year at Georgia Tech. So, that was one of the first things I said to him when I met him here.
“But yeah, you may never know if you’ll see him again. He could be a teammate down the road, so just check in. I think as a leader on this team, just to, like I said, trust who they have in that locker room and kind of create a bond with those guys. I think those guys are seeing and starting to gel together. So, you hate to see guys that you get to know leave, but at the same time, whoever’s in the locker room ready to go on Sundays is who we’re worried about.”
Given the team’s current five-game winning streak, Vrabel was asked if the team’s decision to shake up the roster and deal away an established locker-room presence in Dugger ran the risk of disrupting the team’s dynamic near the midway point of the year.
New England’s head coach brushed aside those concerns as the team preps for a Week 9 matchup at home against the Falcons.
“Again, I’ll remind you, we’re eight games into what we feel like is a program that we want to build, and we have to continue to find ways to improve, figure it out and get it right, and that’s all we’re trying to do,” Vrabel said. “Whether that’s having success early on in the season, mid-season, or after the trade deadline, whatever that may be, I think we just have to continue to take that approach.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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