Patriots land center in trade with Bills, their third deal for an offensive lineman this week

After losing their starting center, the Patriots are adding even more depth at the position

By Jared Dubin

Aug 30, 2019 at 12:51 pm ET • 1 min read

The New England Patriots have apparently identified a need, and they have spent the past week aggressively filling it. According to multiple reports, the Patriots have executed their third trade for an offensive lineman this week, acquiring center Russell Bodine from the division rival Buffalo Bills.

A rare in-division trade: Bills are trading C Russell Bodine to the New England Patriots, sources tell @Marcel_LJ and me.

Bodine is the third OL the Patriots have traded for this week.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 30, 2019

The Bills will get a sixth-round pick in the deal, per NFL Network:

The #Patriots are trading a 6th round pick to the #Bills for C Russell Bodine, source said. Buffalo’s center Mitch Morse getting healthy, combined with David Andrews likely heading to IR with a blood clot necessitated this.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 30, 2019

Bodine became expendable for Buffalo with the Thursday night announcement that presumptive starting center Mitch Morse -- signed away from the Chiefs this offseason on a four-year, $44.5 million deal -- has cleared the concussion protocol and should be available for Week 1. The Patriots, meanwhile, learned earlier this week that their own starting center, David Andrews, is likely to miss a significant amount of time after he was hospitalized when blood clots were discovered in is lungs.

With Andrews out, Ted Karras is next in line to start at center. A sixth-round pick back in 2016, Karras has largely been a reserve player filling out depth at both center and guard so far in his career.

To bolster the depth behind him, the Patriots pulled off trades with the Cardinals and Ravens earlier this week.First, they brought on tackle Korey Cunningham from Arizona, then acquired interior lineman Jermaine Eluemunor from Baltimore.

New England saw starting tackle Trent Brown sign a monster deal with the Raiders in free agency and will also now be without Andrews for a while, so a unit that many consider the league's best will be turning over two of its five members from last season. The remaining players up front -- Shaq Mason, Joe Thuney, Marcus Cannon -- should solidify things in front of Tom Brady, Sony Michel, James White, and company, but you can never have too much depth on hand for legendary offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia to work with.