Jamie Collins Sr.

Chandler Jones weighs in on the Patriots trading Jamie Collins

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

The New England Patriots shocked everyone by trading Jamie Collins to the Cleveland Browns, but nobody had a better reaction than ex-Pat Chandler Jones.

Everything is going right for the New England Patriots, or so we thought. They own a 7-1 record, and just throttled the Buffalo Bills on the road to erase any doubt over whether they would win the AFC East.

But that didn’t stop the Patriots from trading Jamie Collins. He’s a top five linebacker in the NFL, and a true difference maker. Seeing him get traded was a shock, but having him go to an 0-8 team in the Cleveland Browns was even more surprising.

Of course, we saw something along these lines in the offseason when the Patriots traded Chandler Jones. And when the trade was announced, he had a reaction for the ages:

When you see these trades, you would think that Bill Belichick doesn’t like having good defensive players. But he cares about character more than anything, and the truth is Collins hasn’t played well this season. He only has one sack, one forced fumble, and two interceptions. Belichick probably felt as though their defense needed to be fixed, and traded Collins as a way of telling his team that nobody’s untouchable.

As much as Chandler probably hated getting traded, at least he’s glad he didn’t end up in Cleveland. Jones has thrived in his new environment so far. He went the first four games recording a sack and already has five on the season. He’s already proven to be an anchor on an Arizona Cardinals’ team that is loaded on defense, and could ride that all the way to a deep playoff run.

But Collins’ situation is completely different. While he will automatically be the best player on his new team, they don’t have any illusions of getting to the playoffs this season with him. There must have been something going on behind the scenes between him and Belichick, because nobody would ever trade someone to the Browns unless they did something really horrible.

The Patriots knew what they were doing when they flipped Jones into their two starting guards, Joe Thuney and Jonathan Cooper, as well as a young receiver in Malcolm Mitchell. It’s easy to think that Belitricks has something up his sleeve again with this Collins trade, as the third-round draft pick they acquired could end up being their next big star.