The New England Patriots are heading into the 2014 season with a number of questions on offense and apart from tight end, another position of need could be at quarterback, as Ryan Mallett is coming into the last year of his contract and in Bill Belichick-land that means a trade could be coming soon, making names like Michael Vick, Josh McCown, Matt Flynn, Chad Henne, Derek Carr, AJ McCarron and even Tim Tebow potential future backups for Tom Brady.
The free agency period for NFL teams to sign players starts March 11 and that is the first major date of the offseason and it comes after another big event with the NFL combine at the end of February. Teams will use the combine to start making decisions about their draft boards and depending on how the Patriots plan on attacking the draft, they could go after a quarterback on the free agent market.
According to ESPN.com reporter Mike Reiss, the Patriots quarterbacks targets could include some of the "backups with starter potential" type players like Henne, Matt Cassel and Josh McCown depending on how the market develops. The Patriots won't overpay for any of those players, but if it gets late into spring and there aren't as many takers as some players thought due to the deep pool in the draft, that could lead the team to bringing one of those names in. The report says that the team could look into taking a quarterback in the draft in the later stages and some names could be AJ McCarron or Derek Carr.
Ryan Mallett has been mentioned in trade rumors a bit and teams like the Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings could look to acquire him. The Patriots don't usually take three quarterbacks into a season, but with Mallett coming into the last year of his contract that could change things.
