Some Raiders fans expressed regret over the Cordarrelle Patterson trade with New England but historically speaking the Raiders and Patriots have a long history of trading with each other. Most have had important impacts on the history of professional football. Here is a capsule look at some of these major deals.
2018: WR/KR Cordarrelle Patterson
The move will save Oakland $3.2 million in salary-cap space. The Pats sent a fifth-round pick to the Raiders and received a sixth-round pick in return. Patterson has been in the league since 2013 but as a former first round pick of Minnesota he never developed into a receiving threat. Will Belichick succeed? Did the Raiders lose out in this trade? Stay tuned.
2009: DE Richard Seymour
Seymour joined the Raiders at age 30 and his best playing days were behind him. The direct compensation from the Raiders – Oakland’s first-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft (which turned out to be the 17th overall) – was spent on Nate Solder. As of this writing, Nate has 95 starts in 98 career games. He has never made the Pro Bowl but he almost always plays at a Pro Bowl level.
On March 16, 2021 he signed with the Giants as a free agent which effectively ends the Patriots benefits from this trade.
The Pats played in three Super Bowls, winning two with Solder as a starter. Seymour played in 53 games with the Raiders, and he recorded 18.5 sacks which currently ranks 20th in franchise history. Oakland did improve with Seymour, posting back to back 8-8 seasons in 2010 and 2011 but those seasons are bracketed by 9 total wins. Oakland went 25-39 with Seymour in the roster.
2007: WR Randy Moss
This is the one that Raider fans remember the most. The Raiders were a bad team when Moss was on the roster, winning just 7 games in 32 tries. Lane Kiffin and his coaching staff managed to convince Al Davis that Moss needed to be traded because he no longer had the skills to play wide receiver and he brought negative vibes to the locker room.
Oakland dealt Moss to the Patriots for a 2007 4th round pick (110th overall). In return, the Raiders chose defensive back John Bowie who went on to make two career tackles in an NFL career that lasted just 5 games.
In 55 games with the Patriots, Randy Moss caught 50 touchdown passes on 259 catches. The Pats won 40 of the 55 games that Moss appeared in and they played in five playoff games which included a loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
Oakland won just 15 games during that same span and they never made the postseason.
The Moss trade was the worst tin team history followed by the trade that Al Davis orchrestrated to get Moss in 2005. Oakland gave up a 2005 1st round pick (7th overall), a 2005 7th round pick (219th overall and Napoleon Harris to get Moss for 29 total games.
1983: CB Mike Haynes
The Raiders weren’t always on the bad side of trade deals with New England. Haynes sat out most of the 1983 season before his contract was awarded to the Los Angeles Raiders in a settlement that gave the Patriots a No. 1 draft choice in 1984 and a No. 2 pick in 1985. Haynes paired up with Lester Hayes to give the Raiders the greatest cornerback tandem in league history.
L.A. went 4-1 in the five games that Haynes played in and then won three straight postseason contests which included a victory in Super Bowl XVIII. The Raiders might have won the title that year anyway but the addition of Haynes was later cited by Howie Long as the deal that put that team “over the top” which all but assured a Super Bowl win.
In seven seasons with the Raiders, Haynes only made it to the Pro Bowl three times but he added 18 interceptions to give him a career total of 46 which were returned for 295 yards and one touchdown. In 1997, Mike was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1985 the Patriots selected defensive back Jim Bowman, whose 73 game career was mostly spent on special teams. The Patriots traded the 28th overall pick (this was the Raiders pick acquired in Haynes trade) and their 16th overall picks in 1984 to the Bengals so they could get the 1st overall pick in the draft. The Raiders 28th pick helped give New England the leverage they needed to select wide receiver Irving Fryar.
1961: QB Vito “Babe” Parilli
Few Raider fans would recognize the name Babe Parilli but in 1960 he was one of several quarterbacks that the Raiders were looking at as a possible starter. Tom Flores eventually won out a bitter training camp battle for the staring job but Flores struggled with both consistency and with injuries throughout the 1960 season. This allowed the 30 year old Parilli to start one game, which he won, and throw 1,003 yards on 187 attempts. In 1961 he was part of a five-player trade that sent him to the Boston Patriots.
He went on to become one of the AFL’s most productive players from 1961 to 1967. Parilli finished his career with over 25,000 total yards and 200 touchdowns, ending among the top five quarterbacks in 23 categories such as passing yards, passing touchdowns and rushing yards. Also, Parilli led the Patriots to their first ever league championship game in 1963 and he held several Patriots passing records until a guy named Tom Brady broke them.
In the Parilli trade, the Raiders gave up fullback Billy Lott who did very little in New England. Oakland received halfback Dick Christy, defensive tackle Hal Smith and fullback Alan Miller. Christy was cut before the 1961 season, Smith played in only eight games before leaving football for good in 1962.
Alan Miller played in 56 games for the Raiders, rushing for 979 yards and recording just over 1,100 yards as a receiver. The Patriots got the better part of this trade because they discovered a franchise quarterback in Parilli. Oakland would continue to struggle at the position until 1967 when they traded Flores to the Bills for Daryle Lamonica. New England went 50-39-9 during that span (1961-1967). Oakland went 35-37-4.
Overall the Patriots have received the “better end” of the deal when trading with the Raiders. However, nothing can substitute for a World Championship and the Mike Haynes trade in 1983 will forever remain as the finest trade ever orchestrated between these two franchises.
