Source – Pats acquire TE Roberts from Lions

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots are picking up Detroit Lions third-half Michael Roberts for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2020, ESPN's Adam Schefter told a championship source. The Patriots are lean and tight in their transition without Rob Gronkowski, who announced his retirement in March.

Matt LaCosse, a four-year veteran, took No. 1 representative to a mandatory minicamp. He had a career record with 24 receptions at the Broncos last season.

Veteran Benjamin Watson plans to be part of the mix, but will miss the first four games of the season due to a suspension of the NFL. Stephen Anderson, who spent the 2018 season in the New England training squad, completed the top of the depths chart with the 2018 seventh round pick, Ryan Izzo.

The Patriots inherit Roberts' contract, which is still two years old. Roberts is expected to earn a base salary of $ 645,000 in 2019 and $ 735,000 in 2020. The Lions drafted Roberts in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL draft in Toledo. Roberts, who is 6-foot-5 and 265-pound, has played 23 regular-season games in the past two years, totaling 13 catches for 146 yards and 3 touchdowns.

After Roberts had injury problems last season when he appeared several times over an escape, Detroit has been working to rearrange the packed house in the last six months. This included the writing of T.J. Hockenson in the first round and Isaac Nauta in the seventh and the signing of free agents Jesse James and Logan Thomas. The quartet of new faces left Roberts in a difficult position to list.

"Obviously, with the tight final position, a little bit in the conversation here, we have good competition in the room right now," said Lions coach Matt Patricia. "We had the opportunity to move from Mike hoping to get something back. So it was a good opportunity for us, as a team, to do that and build our team in the long run. This can affect the total number. We are currently at 89, we are not at 90. So we have a free slot at the moment. "

This is the latest in a long list of trades between the Lions and the Patriots since former New England employee Bob Quinn assumed the position of Detroit GM in 2016.

The Detroit News first reported the trade.