Denver traded wide receiver Mike Haffner to New England on…
Denver traded wide receiver Mike Haffner to New England on September 8, 1971 for what the Patriots' official all-time trade history calls New England's 1972 13th choice. The exact draft selection is not identified in the reviewed record. Haffner never appeared in a Patriots regular-season game and later played three games for Cincinnati in 1971.
Denver Broncos Received
- pick New England's 1972 13th choice (exact selection not identified)
New England Patriots Received
- player Mike Haffner
Trade Analysis
The Patriots' official all-time trade ledger resolves the basic structure of this September 8, 1971 transaction. New England acquired wide receiver Mike Haffner from Denver for what the club describes as the Patriots' 13th choice in the 1972 draft. That is stronger than the legacy TradeVerdicts wording, which combined a possible 13th-round pick with a second generic undisclosed-pick description. The source supports one draft asset, but the reviewed public draft records do not reconcile that wording to a specific overall selection with enough certainty to assign a player, so the downstream Denver pick remains deliberately unmapped. Haffner had been productive for Denver before the move. Pro Football Reference records 59 receptions for 991 yards and seven touchdowns over the 1968 through 1970 seasons, including 35 catches for 563 yards and five touchdowns in 1969. He started 16 games across those three seasons. New England therefore acquired an experienced receiver rather than a camp-only prospect. The Patriots did not realize regular-season production from the acquisition. NFL's 1971 Cincinnati roster and multiple statistical records place Haffner with the Bengals that season, where he appeared in three games without a reception. His career log contains no New England regular-season appearance. The accessible sources do not establish the exact transaction that moved him from the Patriots' control to Cincinnati, so TradeVerdicts does not invent an intermediate waiver or trade step. For the Denver side, the exact player produced by the 1972 draft consideration cannot be credited because the selection identity is unresolved. Even with that limitation, Denver exchanged a veteran it was moving on from for a future draft asset, while New England received zero regular-season games from Haffner. The existing Denver-win direction is therefore retained, but the grades remain modest: C+ for Denver and C for New England, reflecting the known zero Patriots production without pretending the unidentified pick became a major asset. Confidence is medium because the official Patriots ledger confirms the transaction and Haffner's career path is clear, while the exact draft-choice mapping remains unresolved.