Trading Kayshon Boutte didn’t exactly disrupt the Patriots’ plans.

The wideout was sent to the Texans on Monday after saying he was open a trade in the offseason, following New England’s overhaul of its receiving corps, and coach Mike Vrabel didn’t hold back in his assessment of the situation.

“That was one place where we do have some depth, and I think for all parties involved, that was probably the best thing,” Vrabel told reporters after the Patriots’ preseason finale, a 37-13 loss to the Browns. “Without injuries, Kayshon probably would have been inactive. Unfortunately, it just, it’s kind of the way it was. It’s just with him not playing special teams.”

New England added superstar A.J. Brown in a trade with the Eagles and then inked Romeo Doubs in free agency, pushing Boutte down a depth chart that also includes Mack Hollins, DeMario Douglas and breakout rookie Kyle Williams.

That made him a tradable piece that brought back safety Jaylen Reed and a seventh-round draft pick from Houston.

“I guess he was the odd man out,” VP of player personnel Eliot Wolf said Tuesday. “But there were some different conversations that we had with different teams throughout the league. Again, the opportunity to acquire Jaylen Reed for a player that Houston wanted is something that we decided to pull the trigger on. We feel really good about our receiver group. We have guys that can play in multiple positions. They all really complement each other well.”

Boutte, who posted 33 catches for 551 yards and six touchdowns last season, will move up the ranks in Houston, where he’ll battle for targets after Jayden Higgins’ season-ending injury behind entrenched No. 1 Nico Hollins.

The Patriots’ sixth-round pick in the 2023 draft, Boutte was key in their march to the Super Bowl in February, racking up 168 yards and a touchdown over four playoff games.

Vrabel hasn’t forgotten that performance, or Boutte’s public struggles with gambling addiction dating back to his LSU days.

“I tried to thank Kayshon as many times as I could. I texted him again today,” Vrabel said. “It’s just his maturity, his growth, his ability to put into words last year and share his own personal struggle, but also the growth that he made from that. That’s positively going to affect a lot of people.”