From reading this you'd assume the Patriots are loaded with vets they traded for. Out of curiousity I looked at the top 46 players on their current depth chart. Only three were acquired via trade with another team: Dorsett, VanNoy & J. McCourty. Every other player came via draft or free agency.
Dorsett was a player-for-player trade, so that doesn't count. VanNoy & McCourty were pick swaps with the Pats acquiring both players for a swap of a 6th & 7th. (Which was a criminal steal.) I'm sure there were other players that aren't currently listed with the team, like FA Danny Shelton, who was also pick-swap trade.
While the Patriots front office is absolutely to be admired, their skill really seems to lie in being able to move down in the draft and still find good players, not necessarily in acquiring vets for cheap as this seems to suggest. When they do make these trades, it appears they are short term rentals.
