Patriots Player Departure Patriots are sending WR Kayshon Boutte to the Texans for safety Jaylen Reed and a draft pick

[Ring 6]

He does miss a lot of games. I have no idea if that's more than a typical player.

Does he though? 3 games in 2 years.

 

[lancerman]

He caught 72% of his targets in an average depth of throw of 17.6. Those are INSANE numbers.
Having that threat drawing coverage with Brown and Doubs getting extra targets is his you build a damn passing game. Instead we have nice guy Hollins who can get a target now and then as an “afterthought”

Those are good numbers however once you look into the volume it becomes far less impressive. He has some good plays, but longterm he contributes at a high 3 or very low 2 depending. The bigger issue is the WR makeup on the team. He's redundant with Williams. So the issue is give up on the younger and faster Williams or give up on someone else like Hollins who fills a unique role and have Williams and Boutte eat up each others targets and eventually you let one walk.

 

[dliverey44]

I think "burned" is being tossed around a little liberally here....yes he made two TD catches on Stingly, but Stingly was right there both times, KB just made tough contested catches.....this isn't Moss throwing his hand up as he leaves the line.....this isn't even Williams's TD the other night where he got vertical separation on his receiver .

Your right. I was absolutely being hyperbolic

 

[Vindicate]

And he's going to be a valuable guy moving the chains on 3rd downs. Like Welker and Edelman he has the ability to find the holes in defenses, has excellent hands, and is as tough as they get.

....? I've not seen anything that suggests as much. The only similarity to Welker and Edelman is him being white and a small receiver. He had THREE receptions last year, and has only had 4 in this preseason.

He is NOT those two, full stop.

It's the only thing that has really made me scratch my head with Vrabel. I don't get what he sees in him.

 

[Wozzy]

I could see Reed as a big nickel/dime type player. Not much smaller than Khalil Jacobs, but faster.

I see Reed in competition with Dell Pettus, Mike Brown, John Saunders and Peter Manuma for one, maybe two roster spots.

They not only need a backup safety, they need to replace Schooler's special teams contributions... and that's not nothing.

 

[mgteich]

Looks like Reed is already a player. People are not looking past his sixth round draft status.

As a rookie last year he started on PUP, was activated to the roster in late October and played in seven games, starting one, before going on IR. Was brought back from IR and started both playoff games.

His line against Buffalo: 12 tackles, 9 of them solo, plus a fumble recovered. If he does that well against the Bills for us I’ll be happy.

Boutte was NOT worth a 4th to other than pats message board fans. So, let us consider that he was worht a 5th or 6th to someone during the next week.

So, the alternative was likely seen as a 5th or 6th before Game 1 or this trade. Ignore the pick. The team wanted the backup safety for a 5th or 6th. Sure, it might be more understandable to see if we could get the 5th next week, and trade him to an NFC team for a 6th if we couldn't do better.

Apparently, the team filled one of our roster spots: backup safety who plays a lot of special teams. Noe the open is question is whether we want to keep an additional backup safety, choosing from Pettus, Saunders and Brown. Boutte did NOT fill a roster need.

 

[Zuma]

Apparently, Vrabel doesn't like this backup safety options. Did Pettus, Brown and Saunders really look that bad to Vrabel?

Pettus is average and I think Vrabes expected more from Brown

 

[mgteich]

....bingo.

I suspect that Drake has lots of trust in Brown, Doubs, Hollins and Henry.

 

[mgteich]

We only have 1.5 LBs so we are going back to BB's big nickel. 5 safties at a time. Who needs a LB?

Please list all the teams that offered a LB for Boutte.

 

[Family]

Yes. That totally makes sense. Unless you ignore the fact that picks in later years have lesser value then picks currently. A 2025 pick 6 round pick is a UDFA equivalent in 2023.

Huh?

A 2025 pick is more valuable now because there's two years left on the rookie contract.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Bedard said a 5th.

There is a movement in the league to a 3-safety package ("Big Nickel"), particularly against the increasingly prevalent 12 personnel. Maybe that's the angle here. Reed has decent size and is fast, and we haven't been able to cover TEs for years now.
(And most here are forgetting Boutte is a 1-year rental who still needs to be paid, while Reed is cheap and under contract for a few more years).

The Advantages of the Seahawks Big Nickel Defense vs 12 Personnel

The Big Nickel defense is a 4-2-5 scheme using a third safety (hybrid) instead of a traditional cornerback in the slot or a 3rd LB to provide better run support and coverage against "12" personnel (2 TEs).

coachkoufootball.substack.com

Yep. I heard this earlier in the off-season that teams are going to try to copy Seattle.

 

[mgteich]

Pettus is average and I think Vrabes expected more from Brown

Reed is an upgrade and will our #3 safety for Game One, and might start if Woodson cannot.

I suppose that if we traded Boutte for that treasured 5th and Woodson was found to have a minor injury, y'all would be firn with Pettus and Saunders as your Game 1 safeties.

In the end, we got a player will be active a contributing in Game 1.

 

[upstater1]

Boutte was NOT worth a 4th to other than pats message board fans. So, let us consider that he was worht a 5th or 6th to someone during the next week.

So, the alternative was likely seen as a 5th or 6th before Game 1 or this trade. Ignore the pick. The team wanted the backup safety for a 5th or 6th. Sure, it might be more understandable to see if we could get the 5th next week, and trade him to an NFC team for a 6th if we couldn't do better.

Apparently, the team filled one of our roster spots: backup safety who plays a lot of special teams. Noe the open is question is whether we want to keep an additional backup safety, choosing from Pettus, Saunders and Brown. Boutte did NOT fill a roster need.

This is not the way to look at things.

The question is not, what's he worth for other teams.

The question is what is his value to the Patriots?

His stats last year working with Maye in this offense were through the roof. A lot of downfield throws were hugely successful.

No one expects Boutte to have the same production now and in the future when his QB is Stroud. So in retrospect, people will say, Boutte's production has fallen off. But really we should only be concerned with the Patriots and how Maye does with Doubs and Williams. That's the comparison right there.

If a WR goes down, it will be on Kyle Williams to reproduce what Boutte did last year. Otherwise, it'll be a downgrade.

 

[Ring 6]

Those are good numbers however once you look into the volume it becomes far less impressive. He has some good plays, but longterm he contributes at a high 3 or very low 2 depending. The bigger issue is the WR makeup on the team. He's redundant with Williams. So the issue is give up on the younger and faster Williams or give up on someone else like Hollins who fills a unique role and have Williams and Boutte eat up each others targets and eventually you let one walk.

But that was his role. He drew coverage and was not targetted often and was very effective when targetted. Take the top off.
Hollins doesn’t add anything like that. He’s just a guy you put out there and hope for mediocrity and he’s 32 years old.
Williams hopefully can be that but isn’t yet. If he is, there is your answer. If we are replace Boutte with Hollins or Douglas get easy for brown and Doubs to face more double teams end more defense is led in the short to intermediate area.

 

[upstater1]

I will say though that this now opens up the question of whether the front office can evaluate WRs properly, because we're looking at Polk and Williams and their evaluation. More than anything, this is about Williams. Williams will need to have impact.

 

[WhatJustHappened]

Hopefully more than Phillip Dorset

 

[n1997y]

What does where we picked Boutte 3 years ago have to do with anything?
Would trading Puka Nucua for a 5th be an even trade because he was taken in the 5th rd of the draft 3 years ago?

I dunno, lots of folk have been dissing Reed because he was drafted in the sixth round. I’m just pointing out that Boutte was also picked in the sixth so deserves the same respect or lack thereof if you’re going to judge by where they were picked.

In fact Reed was picked with the exact same pick as Boutte, pick 187, so they had the same draft value.

 

[Uptown]

.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Boutte is a WR 2 on many teams, including Houston in this case, but a 3-4 on our team, with talented redundant guys above and below him. He had the worst contract situation in the WR room. So despite his talent and relationship with Maye, he wasn't very valuable to us at this point. The Pats wanted to clear this up before any cutdown dates. Reed looks like he'll make the team and be a contributor. So the FO held their nose and pulled the trigger. That's how it works sometimes.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Please list all the teams that offered a LB for Boutte.

This is the PatsFans message board. We are random old dudes posting. You think I am part of the Patriots GM office?