The New England Patriots have agreed to send defensive tackle Davon Godchaux to the New Orleans Saints in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round pick, sources tell ESPN.
The Patriots had given Godchaux permission to seek a trade in February.
The 30-year-old enters his ninth season and has two years remaining on the extension he had signed last July, which included $16.5 million in guaranteed money. He is scheduled to earn salaries of $4 million in 2025 and $5.5 million in 2026.
The 6-foot-3, 330-pound Godchaux played in all 68 regular-season games over the last four years in New England, with 67 starts, mostly filling a two-down role as a run-stopping nose tackle. He spent the first four seasons of his career with the Dolphins, entering the NFL as a fifth-round draft pick out of LSU in 2017. He now returns to Louisiana once the trade can be processed this week.
The Patriots are establishing a new culture, and plan to run an aggressive defensive scheme under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel and defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, and so they might not be placing as high of a value on run-stuffing nose tackles like Godchaux.
ESPN's Mike Reiss contributed to this report.
