{"id":264955,"date":"2026-02-09T13:30:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=264955"},"modified":"2026-02-08T23:21:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T04:21:53","slug":"patriots-likely-to-trade-sixth-round-bust-demario-douglas-after-super-bowl-heartbreaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/02\/09\/patriots-likely-to-trade-sixth-round-bust-demario-douglas-after-super-bowl-heartbreaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Likely to Trade Sixth-Round Bust After Super Bowl Heartbreaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite losing the Super Bowl to the Seattle Seahawks in a transformative 2025 campaign, the New England Patriots could trade wide receiver Demario Douglas since the team still has a “logjam” at the position. According to a few reports<\/a>, Douglas’ name continues to pop up in trade rumors, even though he led the receiving unit in yards during the 2024 regular season. However, he regressed the following year because the Patriots were heavily reliant on incoming weapons, Stefon Diggs<\/a> and Mack Hollins.<\/p>\n

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Patriots Likely to Trade Sixth-Round Bust Demario Douglas After Super Bowl Heartbreaker<\/h2>\n

It doesn’t help that the Patriots had Kayshon Boutte flying everywhere. Efton Chism has a chance to step in to take over as the long-term answer, but after the Super Bowl loss, many should expect head coach Mike Vrabel to get aggressive this upcoming free agency. The Patriots are no longer a rebuilding team, and they’re at least two star playmakers on each side of the ball away from winning the first NFL Championship since Tom Brady.<\/p>\n

Chism might be waiting to explode, but when you have multiple star receiver free agents, including AJ Brown<\/a>, who could reunite with Vrabel, the Patriots are more likely to put all cards on the table. However, Douglas is still a decent receiver, but he might no longer fit into what the Patriots are doing next season. There are still plenty of opportunities out there for the former 2023 NFL Draft pick. Here are three teams that could use him at least in a WR3 role as a chain-mover.<\/p>\n

Possible Fits<\/h2>\n

Carolina Panthers<\/h3>\n

The Carolina Panthers have a promising future as well. Despite being a first-round playoff exit, the team is easily a favorite next season, but they need more offensive weapons for quarterback Bryce Young. The team is still not fully committed to Young, and this could be his last year as the starter. They should continue upgrading the receiver unit, even though the quarterback situation might be questionable.<\/p>\n

Xavier Legette is in danger of being traded after having two back-to-back disastrous campaigns in the league. He probably needs a fresh start, but receivers like Tetairoa McMillan<\/a> and Jalen Coker were able to thrive. If they trade Legette, Douglas could be a reliable replacement.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Rams<\/h3>\n

Meanwhile, the Rams got their starting quarterback, Matthew Stafford, for at least one more season. However, they must get another receiver behind Davante Adams and Puka Nacua. Adams could retire after his contract is up<\/a>, but Douglas joining a Sean McVay system might be what he needs. If anything, McVay is the perfect coach to get something out of Douglas. Nacua will most likely become the highest-paid receiver one day, and Douglas coming in as a long-term WR2 makes sense while they continue to develop talent once Stafford and Adams retire.<\/p>\n

New York Giants<\/h3>\n

This might be the most logical destination for Douglas. After hiring John Harbaugh, the Giants are officially in rebuild mode. With Jalin Hyatt likely on the trade block and Wan’Dale Robinson a pending free agent, they need to make up for the loss. Malik Nabers<\/a> is a top 5 receiver when healthy, but he needs help in the aerial attack. If Harbaugh wants to help quarterback Jaxson Dart and this offense, they should consider trading for Douglas to boost the unit between Nabers and Darius Slayton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After losing to the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl, the Patriots could be inclined to trade one of their offensive weapons for a star. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":264958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[36,30,34,5,20,6431],"tags":[7739,31898,7473,32135,7394,7300,7661,9950,60,33031],"class_list":["post-264955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-panthers","category-rams","category-patriots","category-giants","category-nfl-teams","tag-carolina-panthers-news","tag-demario-douglas","tag-los-angeles-rams-news","tag-malik-nabers","tag-new-england-patriots-news","tag-new-york-giants-news","tag-panthers-featured","tag-puka-nacua","tag-stefon-diggs","tag-tetairoa-mcmillan"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264955","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\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264964,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264955\/revisions\/264964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}