Report: Patriots Trade Safety Duron Harmon to Lions

New England ships away one of their safeties to a team littered with former Patriots.

The New England Patriots have traded safety Duron Harmon to the Detroit Lions in exchange for a swap of late-round draft picks, according to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport. 

This is a flip of late-round picks. https://t.co/aNNHwXfIgl

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 18, 2020

This seems to be a cap move for New England. Trading Harmon frees up about $4.5 million in cap space for the Patriots to use during free agency, which officially begins this evening at 4pm ET. After the trade, New England will have approximately $7.1 million in available cap space, according to Boston Sports Journal's Miguel Benzan. 

Harmon was selected by the Patriots in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Since then he has been a pivotal rotational piece of New England's secondary, recording 137 tackles, 17 interceptions and 28 passes defended over the pass seven seasons. Harmon is now heading to a team that is littered with former Patriots players, such as Danny Amendola, Tre Flowers, Jamie Collins and Danny Shelton.