Patriots to trade Jamie Collins

From the outside looking in, the Monday’s Jamie Collins trade was the most stupefying of the Bill Belichick era because of the timing.

“Jamie is a huge piece of our defense, arguably our best defensive player,” Pro Bowl safety Devin McCourty said in an interview with CSN New England.

Former Patriots executive (and Belichick confidant) Michael Lombardi tweeted Monday that Collins was guilty of freelancing too much on defense, in essence going off of the coaches’ script during games.

Lombardi suggests the Collins trade was Belichick’s wake-up call, sending a message to the locker room that the defense isn’t playing well enough against a string of mediocre quarterbacks.