Full trade details: Patriots get more out of the Marcus Cannon move than initially reported

The beginning of the new NFL league year on Wednesday did not just represent the official start of free agency, it also opened up the trading window. While teams already agreed to some moves prior to that day, they were not allowed to make them official until the clock struck 4 pm yesterday.

The New England Patriots made two trades last week that fall into this category. After re-acquiring Trent Brown from the Las Vegas Raiders, the Patriots later also sent fellow offensive tackle Marcus Cannon to the Houston Texans.

The Patriots announced both of those trades on Thursday morning, with the NFL transaction wire revealing the final terms. While Brown’s deal did not change from the one that was initially reported — New England received him and a 2022 seventh-round pick for a 2022 fifth-round selection — Cannon’s is looking slightly different.

Instead of the two teams swapping picks in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of this year’s draft, the following selections have exchanged hands alongside the veteran lineman:

• New England gets 4-122 and 6-187
• Houston gets 5-158 and 6-194, plus Marcus Cannon

While the change compared to the initial report is but a small one, it does alter the value exchanged in the trade. As a result, we now know that the Patriots are getting slightly more out of it than was reported over the weekend.

Under the old terms of the deal that never were officially announced, the Patriots gained 10.11 points on the Rich Hill trade value chart. In reality, however, they are getting a bit more than that: New England’s draft portfolio is now worth 12.93 points more than it was before the trade, roughly the equivalent of the 146th overall pick in the draft.

Getting the second selection in the fifth round for a player who was expected to get cut anyway is certainly a positive for New England, especially when using the Trent Brown trade as comparison: acquiring Brown, who is younger than Cannon and a candidate to take over his job as the Patriots’ right tackle, cost the team a fifth-round pick next year. Oh, and it got a seventh-rounder back in return.

While the eventual impact of the players, draft picks and monetary savings involved cannot be properly assessed until further down the line, both of those trades turned out very favorably from New England’s point of view.

As a result, the Patriots now own the following nine picks in this year’s draft:

• Round 1, No. 15 overall
• Round 2, No. 46 overall
• Round 3, No. 96 overall (compensatory)
• Round 4, No. 120 overall
• Round 4, No. 122 overall (via Houston)
• Round 4, No. 139 overall (compensatory)
• Round 6, No. 187 overall (via Houston)
• Round 6, No. 196 overall
• Round 7, No. 241 overall

Overall, the Patriots’ draft picks are worth a combined 553.62 points on the value chart. New England still ranks 14th in total value in a league-wide comparison. One year ago, the team was ranked just 23rd.