{"id":196889,"date":"2024-10-27T17:04:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T21:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=196889"},"modified":"2024-10-27T17:04:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T21:04:59","slug":"patriots-josh-uche-trade-healthy-scratch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/27\/patriots-josh-uche-trade-healthy-scratch\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Roster Move Heavily Suggests Chiefs, Ravens, Lions Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots pulled off an upset win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jets\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Jets<\/a> on Sunday, and they did it without popular trade candidate Josh Uche. A second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Michigan product first made a name for himself when he recorded 11.5 sacks, 27 tackles, nine tackles-for-loss, and 14 quarterback hits during the 2022 season. He followed this up with a relatively pedestrian three-sack 2023 and ultimately signed a one-year, prove-it deal with the Patriots.<\/p>\n<p>Josh Uche has performed well as a situational pass rusher, but the team will probably trade him. Even after their <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/recap?gameId=401671618\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">upset win against the Jets<\/a>, New England is still 2-4 and won&#8217;t compete for anything in 2024. The Patriots made Uche a healthy scratch in Week 8&#8217;s matchup, which heavily implies the team is deep in trade talks with another organization. Seeing as he can&#8217;t get hurt if he doesn&#8217;t play, New England could send him to the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, or Detroit Lions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Patriots?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Patriots<\/a> LB Josh Uche is out today vs the Jets, despite not having an injury. He has been a focal point in trade talks around the NFL and his contract is very appealing to contending teams. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AP7rBEABul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/AP7rBEABul<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Schultz_Report\/status\/1850562416771317881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Josh Uche Trade Becomes More Likely After Patriots Roster Move<\/h2>\n<p>The Kansas City Chiefs entered Week 8 as the NFL&#8217;s last remaining undefeated team and should handle business against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_self\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>. However, a pristine record does not mean a flawless roster, as this organization could use another pass rusher or two. Kansas City has just 10 sacks through their first six games, which isn&#8217;t enough to support a battered secondary. While Trent McDuffie remains a reliable playmaker, the Chiefs will struggle to get by with breakout <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/23\/can-the-kansas-city-chiefs-keep-winning-after-recent-injuries\/\" target=\"_self\">fourth-round pick Jaylen Watson<\/a> done for the season. A Josh Uche trade might not fix every issue, but it certainly couldn&#8217;t hurt.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs are all-in on the 2024 season as they chase their third Super Bowl in as many seasons. The team already fixed their offense with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/23\/deandre-hopkins-fantasy-outlook-after-being-traded-to-chiefs\/\" target=\"_self\">DeAndre Hopkins trade<\/a>, so now it&#8217;s time to address the defense. Josh Uche won&#8217;t be the top pass rusher on this team, but the trade target is easily worth a sixth-round pick. With Chris Jones continuing to dominate from the interior, Uche can join former first-round pick George Karlaftis on the outside and give the team three players capable of consistently getting after the quarterback.<\/p>\n<h3>Other Suitors<\/h3>\n<p>The Detroit Lions continue to dominate weaker opponents, as their 52-14 win over the Tennessee Titans was one of the few blowouts on an otherwise fantastic slate of games. However, they still must find their <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/15\/how-the-lions-can-recover-from-the-loss-of-aidan-hutchinson\/\" target=\"_self\">Aidan Hutchinson replacement<\/a>, as competent organizations won&#8217;t fall quite as easily against Detroit&#8217;s high-powered offense and special teams. Uche is no Hutchinson and he can&#8217;t always hold his own against the run, but his strong pass-rushing prowess makes him an ideal fit on a defense that will likely see several passing looks from teams trying to keep up with Detroit&#8217;s offense.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.clevelandbrowns.com\/news\/browns-29-ravens-24-final-score-stats-game-recap\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Week 8&#8217;s upset loss<\/a> to the Cleveland Browns proved that the Baltimore Ravens still have some work to do as they build their roster. While the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/09\/11\/deshaun-watson-cleveland-browns-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">absence of Deshaun Watson<\/a> certainly played a role in Cleveland&#8217;s revived passing attack, Baltimore&#8217;s lackluster pass rush didn&#8217;t help matter. The team recorded just two sacks as former first-overall pick Jameis Winston had plenty of time to survey the field and pick apart the Ravens secondary. Head coach Jim Harbaugh prefers to rotate his edge defenders, and a Josh Uche trade would give Baltimore a much-needed complement to Kyle Van Noy and former first-round pick Odafe Oweh.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Gregory Fischer &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amid trade speculation, the New England Patriots have made Josh Uche a healthy scratch, indicating he may be traded soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":195564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,24],"tags":[7811,6411,7394,7638],"class_list":["post-196889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots","category-ravens","category-lions","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-josh-uche","tag-new-england-patriots-news","tag-ravens-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}