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

[javajunky]

I really don't get the fuss about this trade. Reed will get many more snaps on our team than Boutte would.

 

[jdlboot14]

Hey, this is the way a pro sports business is supposed to work.
1. The team needed to improve and brought in high-level competition (investing serious $$ into new positional depth)
2. The existing player realized his role would decrease (he didn't fit the team's evaluation of top level $$ for role)
3. The player requested to be traded. This isn't contentious, he rightly evaluated his opportunity.
4. The team agreed with the value/production assessment and got what they could, while allowing the player to go somewhere he may have more opportunity to contribute & earn a FA contract that he wouldn't receive here.

 

[Bill Lee]

2. Kyle Williams made a jump and is the insurance. Mack Hollins will have a role but it is Williams who is expected to rise up should Doubs, Brown, or even Douglas go down. They have seen William's progress and are comfortable enough with it that there was no need for Boutte as insurance.

I like your take. It's pretty nuanced by calling out what the staff thinks they are seeing and what they are comfortable with. Look, at some point, you have to take the plunge and give a player like Williams a bigger role. The risk is that you're doing it more out of team building concerns rather than on-field performance, but those kinds of calls are what the staff gets paid to do.

Pretty sure the staff knew that when they signed Doubs that this was Boutte's last year here, and once they had a handshake deal on Brown they knew they'd rather use his roster spot on someone else.

Consensus I’m seeing is most fans hate this trade and wanted Boutte to stay.

As the old saying goes, if you do what the fans in the stands want, you'll end up sitting next to them.

 

[Ring 6]

Boutte was the engine that drove this offense. Maye was just along for the ride and was an MVP candidate thanks to Bouttee's contested catch skills.

Some here have even suggested that AJB is a better X receiver than Boutte. WTF?

Face it, we are porked thinking we can just roll out AJB, Doubs, Pop and company and have the same level of success.

Yes that’s what I said isn’t it?

Boutte’s role largely was to run off coverage. There is value in that. Because of the success he and Maye had on deep throws, it helped open up other areas because Boutte would pulll a corner deep and often require a safety over the top. Do you not understand how that is beneficial to an offense?
Do you want AJ Brown to be the “decoy”, the guy running off coverage to open up other receivers or do you want him being the guy getting the ball?

What we no longer have unless it’s Williams is a guy who will fill that role. I think it’s an important piece of an offense and I’m not paying AJ Brown to do it and get minimal targets.

 

[Ring 6]

Learn math and get back to me. Stefon Diggs had 102 targets, Hunter Henry 87 targets, and Boutte had 46 targets. Based on your percentages that I have no idea are accurate, here is the number of targets each receiver had over 20 yards

Diggs - 12
Boutte - 13
Henry - 7

Now that is assuming your numbers are correct.

Diggs and Boutte were targeted about the same deep last year.

Just because Diggs is more versatile than Boutte doesn’t mean he wasn’t used as a deep threat about as much as Boutte. And the TE seam route has been a McDaniels signature since about 2010.

My math was impeccable.

I remember why I had you in ignore for 5 years.
Instead of actually discussing a topic, you just try to find things to throw Intonte mix to confuse the point.

The topic was taking coverage deep and opening up the field for other receivers.
If Boutte is getting 30%+ of his targets 20+ yards downfield, over 70% at 10+ and Diggs is getting 68% at less than 9 yards, what part of the forks do you think they are operating in?
But rather than finding a way to distract from that point, if you actually watched the games how many times did you see Diggs or Henry(lol) line ip
and run a go route to draw coverage? Any?
And of you watched games you would know that the vast majority of those few deeper routes from Diggs were crossing routes in the 20-23 range or broken plays.
I know you aren’t stupid enough to actually believe a seam route to a TE is not an example of drawing coverage deep and taking the top off. But I doubt you aren’t stupid enough to not understand that is LITERALLY made possible by an outside receiver running off the coverage and drawing the safety out of the middle of the field.

Do you dispute that a very large portion of Bouttes routes were go routes?
Do you dispute that when left alone Maye found him and he converted?
Do you dispute that those 2 things mean as an offense we were good at drawing away the safety because of that?
Why would we have a WR run go routes? If they get open you hit them but if not you have pulled 2 defenders out of the area you wanted to attack.
How is this confusing for you?

 

[Ring 6]

Learn math and get back to me. Stefon Diggs had 102 targets, Hunter Henry 87 targets, and Boutte had 46 targets. Based on your percentages that I have no idea are accurate, here is the number of targets each receiver had over 20 yards

Diggs - 12
Boutte - 13
Henry - 7

Now that is assuming your numbers are correct.

Diggs and Boutte were targeted about the same deep last year.

Just because Diggs is more versatile than Boutte doesn’t mean he wasn’t used as a deep threat about as much as Boutte. And the TE seam route has been a McDaniels signature since about 2010.

But the way perhaps check your own math.
Boutte 14
Diggs 11
Henry 6

Boutte’s average depth of throw was 17.5
Diggs was 8.7

I didn’t bother looking up Henry’s because it wasn’t close to Boutte’s

 

[Rob0729]

Yes that’s what I said isn’t it?

Boutte’s role largely was to run off coverage. There is value in that. Because of the success he and Maye had on deep throws, it helped open up other areas because Boutte would pulll ==a corner deep and often require a safety over the top. Do you not understand how that is beneficial to an offense?
Do you want AJ Brown to be the “decoy”, the guy running off coverage to open up other receivers or do you want him being the guy getting the ball?

What we no longer have unless it’s Williams is a guy who will fill that role. I think it’s an important piece of an offense and I’m not paying AJ Brown to do it and get minimal targets.

Of course you want Brown to be a decoy on every play where another receiver is the designated primary target on a play. Why wouldn't you? If the Pats are running a seam route to Henry or mid range slant route to Doubs, why wouldn't you send Brown deep and draw the over the top safety help away from Maye's intended target? You want Brown clearing out the center of the field for those receivers to make plays.

I know a lot of elite #1 WR won't sell their routes when the play isn't going to them. But in an ideal world you want the receiver to be selling every route as the ball is going to him to draw coverages away from other receivers.

If Brown is on the field, he is going to draw extra attention from the defense no matter if he is a decoy or not. He is a top 10 receiver in the league and teams design defenses to try to take a receiver like him out which means a lot of double teams and over the top help from the safety. So he will be a natural decoy on plays where passes aren't going to him.

 

[rochrist]

Yes that’s what I said isn’t it?

Boutte’s role largely was to run off coverage. There is value in that. Because of the success he and Maye had on deep throws, it helped open up other areas because Boutte would pulll a corner deep and often require a safety over the top. Do you not understand how that is beneficial to an offense?
Do you want AJ Brown to be the “decoy”, the guy running off coverage to open up other receivers or do you want him being the guy getting the ball?

What we no longer have unless it’s Williams is a guy who will fill that role. I think it’s an important piece of an offense and I’m not paying AJ Brown to do it and get minimal targets.

There's no reason at all to think that Williams can't accomplish the same thing. He's faster, gets better separation, and has proven he can catch the ball.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Kayshon Boutte on Instagram: "New England, it’s hard to put into words what these last few years have meant to me. Being selected with the 187th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots was a dream come true. From the moment I arrived,

72K likes, 2,830 comments - kayshon on August 26, 2026: "New England, it’s hard to put into words what these last few years have meant to me. Being selected with the 187th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots was a dream come true. From the moment I arrived, I was welcomed into...

www.instagram.com

You are going to absolutely love, love, love Reed.

 

[Bill Lee]

I'm seeing a lot of arguments about Boutte being a 4th or 5th WR here.

That's a great argument... IF Williams pans out.

This is what I've been saying all along. There's no problem with the trade IF Williams pans out.

And I've said that repeatedly.

But I've also said that if Williams DOES NOT pan out, then we not only have to look at the way we do WR evaluation because we selected Polk and Williams, but also because we let Boutte go!!!!

I'm thinking the true calibration point / reference is what the rest of the WR-hungry league was willing to offer for Boutte, rather than where he'd fit in our roster.

What is your definition of "pan out" for Williams? Good WR3/4 like Boutte? Higher? Lower?

 

[mgteich]

I'm thinking the true calibration point / reference is what the rest of the WR-hungry league was willing to offer for Boutte, rather than where he'd fit in our roster.

What is your definition of "pan out" for Williams? Good WR3/4 like Boutte? Higher? Lower?

a good 3/4 would be fine

 

[Ring 6]

Of course you want Brown to be a decoy on every play where another receiver is the designated primary target on a play. Why wouldn't you? If the Pats are running a seam route to Henry or mid range slant route to Doubs, why wouldn't you send Brown deep and draw the over the top safety help away from Maye's intended target? You want Brown clearing out the center of the field for those receivers to make plays.

I know a lot of elite #1 WR won't sell their routes when the play isn't going to them. But in an ideal world you want the receiver to be selling every route as the ball is going to him to draw coverages away from other receivers.

If Brown is on the field, he is going to draw extra attention from the defense no matter if he is a decoy or not. He is a top 10 receiver in the league and teams design defenses to try to take a receiver like him out which means a lot of double teams and over the top help from the safety. So he will be a natural decoy on plays where passes aren't going to him.

You want Brown getting the ball not being the guy who runs the lowest chance of getting open routes that draw defenders.
We were paying Boutte peanuts to do that, we didn’t give up a first round pick and pay a big salary to Brown to not get the ball.

 

[Ring 6]

a good 3/4 would be fine

If that’s all he becomes that would be a failure.

 

[Ring 6]

I'm thinking the true calibration point / reference is what the rest of the WR-hungry league was willing to offer for Boutte, rather than where he'd fit in our roster.

What is your definition of "pan out" for Williams? Good WR3/4 like Boutte? Higher? Lower?

Williams should end up a starting WR and put up 1000 yard seasons, based upon the skillset he has. If he falls short of that it’s underachieving.

 

[Rob0729]

You want Brown getting the ball not being the guy who runs the lowest chance of getting open routes that draw defenders.
We were paying Boutte peanuts to do that, we didn’t give up a first round pick and pay a big salary to Brown to not get the ball.

Maye is not going to throw 100% of his passes to Brown. If Boutte was here, he would be on the field for less plays than plays that Brown will be in on where he was not the primary target for Maye where he will likely be drawing coverage away from Maye’s primary target.

 

[Ring 6]

Maye is not going to throw 100% of his passes to Brown. If Boutte was here, he would be on the field for less plays than plays that Brown will be in on where he was not the primary target for Maye where he will likely be drawing coverage away from Maye’s primary target.

I think we’ve reached the point where I can only conclude you are either goofing around or just don’t grasp the concept

 

[Wozzy]

I think Dillon Gabriel will be the starting QB for the Browns at some point this season.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

I think Dillon Gabriel will be the starting QB for the Browns at some point this season.

That's not saying much!

 

[Wozzy]

That's not saying much!

He is probably the best of a bad bunch…unless Watson pulls a complete 180.

That comment was meant for the preseason game thread.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

He is probably the best of a bad bunch…unless Watson pulls a complete 180.

I can't imagine Watson ever being successful again.
He will start 3-4 games before benching, maybe less?
Sanders.....yuck.
Dillon might be the best of those 3.
Maybe they'll play Green and just run it 80% of the time.......yes, I'm kidding.
If I were them I would keep Green just based on athletic ability, so I wonder if Dillon will even be on the team.