FA WR: Reed highly unlikely to sign, no interest in Kevin Curtis

[WelshPat]

a wr takes typically 3 years to GET the nfl....

immediate answers may come in the draft, they will NOT come at the wr position though

Disagree, there's lots of guys that come into the nfl and play well from the start. D-Jackson, Crabtree, Greg Jennings, Calvin Johnson, Eddie Royal, Maclin, Steve Smith... i could go on and on.

Someone like Damien Wiiliams can come in and run every route in the book pretty much straight away. Now, someone like the guy from Georgia Tech, Thomas, he's going to take a while because he's only run 2 routes in his life.

Remember, Tate was a first round prospect and was rated higher than his team mate Hakeem Nicks, who played pretty well pretty quickly. But i think it's tough to rely on someone coming off a pretty much a year injured.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Disagree, there's lots of guys that come into the nfl and play well from the start. D-Jackson, Crabtree, Greg Jennings, Calvin Johnson, Eddie Royal, Maclin, Steve Smith... i could go on and on.

Yes, but how many have done it in our system? In the BB era the most successful rookie WR is probably Bethel Johnson and that's not really saying much most of it was from his KR. Tate is virtually a rookie, hope for the best with him but you can't enter the season expecting him to line up across from Moss. We need a vet IMO

 

[DW Toys]

I agree. although we probably draft WR, I don't want to roll the dice without a solid vet.

Lots of stuff on the blog, but this stood out as comforting.



Sounds like a plan.

Sounds like whistling while walking through the cemetery to me. You can't really be sitting there behind a desk saying "Let's wait for cuts"? What? It is not comforting to me to know that is the main strategy. Kraft doesn't micro-manage so if we made an obvious mistake like Boldin, I am sure BB really has a plan "B'.

The Draft?...Cousins, 18% chance of success from 1-8(plus comps) only. I hope that is not the plan. I also hope they aren't banking on a stupid stoner to be the savior at WR. Stupid as in "let me toke my blunt before the NFL Physical" stupid and he was not that big of a deal at WR at NC. His return abilities made him more attractive. We cut a 14 year vet because he could not get the Patriots WR system. Now you have "Cheech" Tate being fitted for a yellow blazer? Perhaps he can smoke that. What was Tates' Wunderlic?

Cousins we need to at least get one WR with a better long term outlook than Patten....Please.
DW Toys

 

[ausbacker]

The Colts seemed to go OK with Wayne, Clark and the youth brigade at receiver.

 

[Kontradiction]

Or, the Pats have a lot of confidence in Tate and believe that he'll be fine lining up across from Moss with Edelman in the slot.

Tate showed an ability to get behind coverage last year and that was about it. If he works on his route running and gets the offense down, he'll be a dangerous player with us. That has yet to be determined though. All we know about Brandon Tate is that he has had some knee issues for the past couple of years. We shouldn't rely on him and Edelman and a receiver should/should have been definitely looked at. It basically boils down to this: if the FO is right about Tate then we might have a viable WR3. If they are wrong and we don't do anything about the receiver position, there is a bigger hole there than there was in 2009. Seems like a dangerous gamble to me, but we'll see.

Heh. To be honest, I forgot that there was any interest in Reed.

 

[patsinthesnow]

The Colts seemed to go OK with Wayne, Clark and the youth brigade at receiver.

Great Point. However, I wonder if having a stud WR along with a stud TE helped.

EDIT: Nevermind, I'd rather have Wes Welker than Dallas Clark.

 

[The_Riddler]

A bunch of guys at the top of the 2011 draft say hi.

Until McNabb joins the Raiders and we watch the top of the 2011 draft go back down into the 20's.

It's time for Brandon Marshall or TO

 

[Gator Mike]

BB drafts Golden Tate and trades for Deion Branch.

I agree with Reiss on Branch. He could easily end up back here on draft day(s).

Bingo.

I think the Pats honestly believe that Branch will be made available at some point.

 

[jmt57]

Teams are playing under a whole different set of rules this year. For starters there was the increase in the number of service years for a player to become a free agent this season. As a result there are fare fewer unrestricted free agents available for teams to sign. So at this point in the offseason, when about 30 of the 32 fan bases are screaming 'why hasn't my team done more' every year, the screaming is even louder because those fans were expecting more rather than less in an uncapped year.

Secondly the uncapped year has changed another dynamic in how teams shape their roster. Typically teams are cutting players at the start of free agency in order to clear cap space. However in an uncapped year they no longer need to do that. Now the only incentive is to avoid paying roster bonuses on certain dates. End result is that more veterans will be cut later in this offseason than they would have been in previous years, which will in turn make more free agency additions happen later this offseason.

Yes, the Pats have an issue at WR; there is no denying that. But aside from the annual 'why haven't we done anything yet' mentality, it may be worth considering that this offeseason roster changes in free agency are going to be far different than in the past.

 

[captain stone]

I agree. although we probably draft WR, I don't want to roll the dice without a solid vet.

Lots of stuff on the blog, but this stood out as comforting:
Kraft added, "I think between June and the start of the season, you will probably see significantly more players getting released with veteran-type experience than you have in the past."

Sounds like a plan.

Why does Kraft believe that more vets will be released after the draft this year than in past years? Without a salary cap, there's less of a reason to do that. Besides, because this offense is so damn complicated, it behooves the FO to bring a new WR to Foxborough sooner rather than later.

I still think that Bill should've signed Dante Stallworth & Matt Jones weeks ago; they would've already started learning the playbook and becoming acclimated to the task at hand.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Another year of wasting Tom Brady's carrer will be upon us in a month...

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Another year of wasting Tom Brady's carrer will be upon us in a month...

Just like 06, I cant believe they will do this to Tom Brady.. I dont want to hear about tate and eldeman... its not enough... and that equals to a 8-8 record right now...

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Ask me again on draft day then we will see where this team is....

 

[DaBruinz]

Tate is fine college prospect with no traning camp and one game of experience. It seems very risky to rely on him being a competent starter opposite Moss. And if Moss were injured, I guess we could win by just relying on our running game, even when there is no passing game.

Unless we have a serious improvement at wide receiver, Moss will be double-teamed on every single play.

While Tate didn't have any TC and had one game of experience, you forgot to mention that he had a full year of Film review with the likes of Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Bill Belichick guiding him. And he'll have a full off-season working with Tom to get their timing down. Will it happen? Who knows. But if the Pats think it will, then they do. They are the ones getting paid to make those decisions.

People seem to forget that going into last season the Pats had Moss, Welker and a bunch of question marks. This year is no different, except they have Moss and Edelman. And while Edelman is no Welker, he's proven to be more than capable of being an effective receiver even when playing with a broken arm.

The last rookie receiver they had to break 30 receptions was Deion Branch in 2002. So, expecting Edelman to get to the 60-90 reception plateau as a sophmore isn't unrealistic. Then all they need is someone to step in and get 30+ receptions behind Edelman.

As for Moss getting double-teamed. Good. Let him earn his salary. That being said, He was doubled plenty last year and still managed to get 83 receptions with a bum shoulder..

People need to stop thinking it's the end of the world just because the Pats haven't signed a veteran receiver. They have a thousand times more information than we do on the subject. On Welker's status. On Tate's status.

Heck, for all we know, Welker could be back to start the season. Jerry Rice was able to return in 6 months from his injury, and that was 20 years ago. And the advances since then have been huge.

 

[DaBruinz]

Just like 06, I cant believe they will do this to Tom Brady.. I dont want to hear about tate and eldeman... its not enough... and that equals to a 8-8 record right now...

What do you mean, just like 2006? In 2006, they thought they had Branch coming back, the scumbag... And the Pats DID sign players and added players as well. Mentioning 2006 is stupid because it's an entirely different situation. And your downplaying Edelman is pure ignorance.

As for your chicken little attitude, :bricks:

 

[DaBruinz]

I still think that Bill should've signed Dante Stallworth & Matt Jones weeks ago; they would've already started learning the playbook and becoming acclimated to the task at hand.

Yes. Bill should have signed the Drunk Murderer and the Coke head..

Sorry, but the Pats dumped Stallworth for a reason. As for Jones, he's over-rated..

While I do agree that I'd have liked to have signed another receiver, BB clearly believes that the players are either over-priced or the wrong fit.

As for Kraft thinking that more players will be made available in June, he could be talking about teams being at the 80 man limit and deciding to part ways with players.

There could also be nuances about the Uncapped year that we don't know about.

 

[thechris]

Is Laverneous Coles still available? He might be an option.

 

[Fencer]

Why does Kraft believe that more vets will be released after the draft this year than in past years? Without a salary cap, there's less of a reason to do that.

Without a salary cap, there's less incentive to release them BEFORE the last moment.

 

[Fencer]

How about this guy?

Willie Gault, almost 50 years old, could still play in NFL - Jeff Pearlman - SI.com

Runs a 4.4 40, has considerable experience with moderate productivity, and seems to be of great character.

 

[spacecrime]

I'm normally with the FO, but I have to say it's quite the head scratcher when you have a handful of guys available at position we need immediate help and no move is made. I can see not going for the big money players but there's some solid WR's out there who probably won't demand much.

And yeah, hard to see a rookie helping us much this year. That's great for the long term but what's the plan for this year??

It is six months from start of FA to start of season. A bit less than one month has passed. We don't need immediate help. We need help five months from now.

Did we acquire Moss in the first month of FA? Dillon? Welker? Antowain? any of a number of difference makers?

We acquired Adalius early in free agency.

Speaking of Adalius, has anyone considered that he hasn't been cut because there is no cap, and therfore we can keep players all off-season that narmally would be cut. It doesn't cost a cent to keep him in case we lose three LBs to IR in preseason. If we finish preeason healthy, Adalius gets cut.

WELL, OTHER TEAMS ARE DOING THIS ALSO. Look for some high quality players to be cut after week three or four of preseason.