Patriots helmet Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

The New England Patriots were quite clearly in need of a new quarterback this offseason after both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe struggled in the role the past couple of seasons. They ultimately decided to sign veteran Jacoby Brissett and draft Drake Maye with the No. 3 overall pick, but it sounds like they also targeted a superstar veteran for a possible trade before that.

According to a report from Adam Schefter of ESPN, the New England Patriots reached out to the Los Angeles Chargers about potentially trading for star quarterback Justin Herbert.

“In recent weeks, both the Patriots and Vikings reached out to the Chargers to see if they had any interest in trading QB Justin Herbert, per league sources. The answer was, very quickly, ‘a flat no.’ Not only do the Chargers love Herbert, but they also would have had to take on a $63.5 million cap charge for the coming season at a time they have $32.3 million of cap space,” Schefter said in a post on X, the social media website that was formerly known as Twitter.

After all was said and done, the Patriots got their players and the Chargers got to hold onto their starting quarterback.

[Adam Schefter]