Should the Patriots Trade for Jimmy Graham?

The Saints tight end, tight end Jimmy Graham, is unhappy that he's been ruled a tight end and not a wide receiver, because he's a tight end and not a wide receiver. He's earned accolades as a tight end and is considered a tight end and considers himself a tight end and is not a wide receiver.

The main problem is that he wants to be paid like a wide receiver.

The latest spin cycle has the talking heads linking Graham to the Patriots purely because it would take two firsts to pluck him from the Saints' grasp since Graham's currently under the franchise tag. The signs point to New England because Bill Belichick's crew is the safest bet in the league to finish at the top of the league in two consecutive seasons- and as a result, be "giving up" the least.

So should the Patriots make the trade?

No. No, they should not.

Let's go back to talking about Andre Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald or Randy Moss or Andre Reed or Steve Largent. Or Deion Branch.

ESPN's NFL Insider Ed Werder proposes the Patriots, but withholds the Packers from contention because their GM "values his draft choices," and apparently Belichick does not.

Let's ignore the fact that Graham's contract is expected to break Rob Gronkowski's $9 million per season and that Madden-ing Graham and Gronk on the same team would give the Patriots the two highest paid tight ends in the league, tying up nearly $20 million per season (or a hair under 15% of the total cap).

Let's ignore the fact that trading for Graham would be conceding that the team's mission is to mortgage the future for the final few years of Tom Brady's career, which goes against everything that Belichick and team owner Bob Kraft have said in the open about the franchise being greater than one player.

Let's ignore the fact that tight ends are no longer value options on offense and that Bill Belichick is already turning his focus back to the ground-and-pound running game to take advantage of market inefficiencies and to hand Jimmy Garoppolo an offense where he doesn't have to be the main focus.

Let's ignore the fact that the Patriots need to focus their cap space on extending Devin McCourty and restructing Darrelle Revis and currently stand at the projected 2015 cap ceiling, which would both a) make it impossible to sign Graham without giving up either McCourty or Revis; and b) tie the Patriots hands for the foreseeable future in both the draft and free agency.

Yes, Graham would be fun to place in the slot opposite of Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, and next to Aaron Dobson. No, it makes absolutely zero sense.

Bringing back Deion Branch, though? That's something I can support.