Still No # 1WR

Ring 6 said:

And a great OL

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Yup but I wanted more to point out in which areas offensively we improved in comparison to last year. O-Line was stout last year. But TE WR and QB got significantly improvements. I expect them to be way better than last year. With Onwenu Mason and Brown there should be holes you can fly a plane through for our RB's and you can't stack the box too much with Henry Smith Meyers Bourne Agholor flying around.

Sam Bam *****nmoaningham.

Fatmancryin said:

I personally wouldn’t offer much as he is coming off another huge injury.

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There's that too.

Still six rings, and still didn't get one the year we had the best WR of the Belichick era, Randy Moss.

DropKickFlutie said:

Don't need one. We have 2 pass-catching tight ends Henry and Smith, then Agholor, Meyers, Bourne. Add in QB/RB/OLine that's already 12 starters for 11 spots. We went 15 years with smurf receivers Welker, Branch, Edelman (+Gronk) for most of it. Imagine a scheme that is 2TE, run heavy, devastating play action, and an OLine that can beat the crap out of these smaller DE and smaller LBs in NFL defenses these days. We do NOT need some Julio Jones or overpaid WR. We're set at the pass catching positions. Meyers is also hugely underrated, a 1200 yard receiver if he started all year and beat teams focused on him since everyone else sucked last year.

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Well, about that Julio Jones guy? Yeah we don’t need him but if somehow, miraculously he found his way to this roster I don’t think anyone is gonna be complaining.

No faith tre Nixon can’t step into that role?

jboston19 said:

They have a lot of balance on offense and look like they’re going to focus on running the ball. A #1 WR is exciting but obviously not a priority for them.

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All that a #1 WR means is a #1WR contract.

Dumbest thing in sports. I'll take my #3/4/5 and scheme is better than yours anyday.

Patriot Missile said:

Well, about that Julio Jones guy? Yeah we don’t need him but if somehow, miraculously he found his way to this roster I don’t think anyone is gonna be complaining.

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Sure if it's for a low pick and he restructured his expensive contract. No thanks if it costs significant draft capital or eats a huge chunk of cap. We already have 12 starters for 11 offensive spots.

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Outside of Randy Moss, when have the Pats had a “#1 receiver” ? It’s always receiver by committee. There were times Gronk was the best receiver, sometimes it was Edelman. Sometimes it was Troy Brown, sometimes it was Deion Branch. They’ve never had a conventional #1 receiver in the Belichick era, even Moss split receptions with Welker, who usually had more catches. This offense will run through the TEs in 2022, and be run heavy.

Clonamery said:

Sam Bam *****nmoaningham.

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Sam Bam Trolling ham

As much as I would like a #1 WR to grow with Mac, that doesn't matter. All that matters is that Mac is 'the guy'. If he is a hit, this draft is a massive success by virtue of that alone. We can always aim for a #1 WR next year. You can't always aim for a highly graded QB prospect. More importantly, we are at least 1 year away from competing no matter what, so there's no rush to try to get everything this year. We went for value and I'm on board with that choice at this point in the rebuild.

Not to mention, a #1 WR isn't that big a deal. The big deal is how good your #2 and #3 WRs are. A #1 WR can always be taken away. Rarely do they truly require constant extra attention. The only examples of guys like that in recent years have been Hill and Megatron. Players who absolutely change the game for the defense to such a degree that you need to set it up around them. Everyone else you just live with for the most part on majority of plays.

Unless you have an absolute game wrecker like prime Gronk or one of those guys the #1 option is overrated IMO. The key is to get the other teams #2 or #3 CB against a very good WR in space. But of course that means your #1 has to be good, cause of he is only okay, that means your #2 and #3 WRs are also at best only okay.

PScottman said:

The Patriots have arguably two #1 TEs.

The WR lust continues when they remain the EASIEST player on the field to scheme "out".

Instead, allocate that huge WR cap number across the rest of the offense, have two-to-three specialist WRs - one possession, one speedster that can get deep (what - are they just not going to cover a guy?), and one route-runner for the cost of that ONE #1 guy and watch the Patriots exploit the matchup issues across an entire defense instead of trying to figure out "well, they hit/disrupt and then double our high paid #1 WR, now what?" (kind've like what everyone does with T. Hill in the playoffs now incl. TB last year).

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Ian

This should be required reading for potential graduates when we bring back The Practice Squad threads.

The Pats' offense has rarely relied on a traditional #1 WR. They did it when Moss was here, but that was because he was an elite talent. Otherwise, they have never had a #1 WR in the traditional sense.

BobDigital said:

As much as I would like a #1 WR to grow with Mac, that doesn't matter. All that matters is that Mac is 'the guy'. If he is a hit, this draft is a massive success by virtue of that alone. We can always aim for a #1 WR next year. You can't always aim for a highly graded QB prospect. More importantly, we are at least 1 year away from competing no matter what, so there's no rush to try to get everything this year. We went for value and I'm on board with that choice at this point in the rebuild.

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One thing to think about is next year’s draft. I would think that Alabama WR John Metchie will come out for the 2022 draft. He REALLY meshed well with Jones when Waddle got hurt. Finished with 55 catches, 916 yards and 6 TDs as a sophomore.

Yawn

Very strange post.
FA brought in help on D and on O. Two quality TEs were signed. A QB of the future, a huge DL, and a possible helper on the edge were taken with three picks within the top 100.

But we have no #1 WR.

Why is Patsfans so obsessed with WRs ? Is there any data to show that the team with the highest rated WR group is the most likely to win the SB ? Or have we come to a point where the avg patsfan would rather see an air show than a trophy presentation ?

We don't need a #1 WR.

However, I expect Bill to bring in a couple of receivers to compete with Myers, Harry and Gunner. I agree on bringing back Byrd.

Rob0729 said:

The Pats' offense has rarely relied on a traditional #1 WR. They did it when Moss was here, but that was because he was an elite talent. Otherwise, they have never had a #1 WR in the traditional sense.

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True. But, we had the best QB. We can’t expect Mac to be TB12. We need to make it easier for him

I'm assuming we'll have 2 TE in most of our packages this year, that means there is only 3 spots for skill positions left. With a RB begin one of them, having Meyers and Agholor as starter seems really good to me.

As others have said, I'm not too worried about it right now since Agholor has the deep speed that should command respect, opening things up more for the other guys, and they've got two #1 TEs. If they stood pat for the most part, maybe bring Byrd back, I'd be happy enough.

That said - I would definitely flip a 3rd for Julio and convert most of his $15M salary this year into a signing bonus. Could drop his '21 cap number to around $6M, make his cap numbers in '22 and '23 around $16M each year. If he declines too much by the third year you could cut him with not too much dead money, just the pro-ration of the signing bonus you gave him. Even if he loses some speed he can still be a very good possession guy. The Falcons need to trade him post-June 1st to get any cap relief, so it won't be official til then, but I'd expect it to be agreed to. They actually need to make room just to sign their rookies...