Patriots Rumor Tracker / FA Signings (Updated: Signings in OP - 4/7)

hornetfb85 · Mar 13, 2026

WhatJustHappened said:
Why are you confused?
It's been discussed, how many SB's did we win with the ONE REAL WR 1 we've had in the past 25 years?
I'll tell you...

ZERO

And that guy is considered top 2 ALL-TIME.

HOW MANY did we win WITHOUT this superstar Fkn Fantasy Football Player?

We were 3rd in scoring last year, even though JSN was on Seattle, their offense was almost 40 yds per game less than ours last year, and JSN did exactly jack **** in the SB.

I don't understand WTF is so difficult to understand?

Btw, I don't want a 1 man show, too ez to take away.

Not banging the table to trade for Brown here, but don’t mind it if they do. I’m mainly in the thinking of we don’t need to add more middle of the pack receivers. We’ve got a good productive group.

Give Kraft A Hand · Mar 13, 2026

WhatJustHappened said:
WHAT has Cincy won with that RIDONKULOUS Money spent on Fantasy Football?

They've won EXACTLY Jack ****.

Thanks

So you’re going to ignore facts. Btw who did the Bengals play in that Super Bowl? The Rams who had a WR 1 in Cooper Kupp. Kupp had 1900 yards. Btw putting your points in CAPITAL letters don’t make them any less or more VALID.

Toofy · Mar 13, 2026

I feel we might go into the draft and sign one understudy to Mac hollins . I am expecting a 6'4 receiver who can be a boundary receiver but can play slot too if need be - something like Mike Evans but who would need 1 year of redshirting.

They will most likely lose Boutte next year . So makes sense to get a developmental wide receiver . Chism will be cut and signed onto PS. We might trade pop to Rams or Vikings where I feel he will do well . Maybe even the chargers.

Pop definitely has no place on this team as a wr5 on last year of contract .

We might sign Mac hollins to 2 year extension with out after a year .

Anticipate TE and WR in round 4-6 . Top 3 rounds are RT -DE - LB to replace Moses , landry , Spillane.

Give Kraft A Hand · Mar 13, 2026

hornetfb85 said:
Not banging the table to trade for Brown here, but don’t mind it if they do. I’m mainly in the thinking of we don’t need to add more middle of the pack receivers. We’ve got a good productive group.

They have an entire roster of middle of the pack receivers. If they add someone else it has to be a playmaker.

WhatJustHappened · Mar 13, 2026

Sorry hornet, this Fantasy Football crap is giving me a fkn headache, and it's the same garbage EVERY DAY.

I was on edge, I apologize.

IF he comes here,I will cheer for him because he'd be on OUR TEAM, but I really don't want to spend the $ and draft picks for a guy that has been an issue at BOTH TEAMS he's been on.

I also would prefer NOT being so 1 dimensional.
I'm sure he'd put up some highlights, he's a Great Player.

Take Care

WhatJustHappened · Mar 13, 2026

Give Kraft A Hand said:
So you’re going to ignore facts. Btw who did the Bengals play in that Super Bowl? The Rams who had a WR 1 in Cooper Kupp. Kupp had 1900 yards. Btw putting your points in CAPITAL letters don’t make them any less or more VALID.

Bah, take a look down the line.
I think you've been giving AJ a handy

You live in Fantasy Football land.

Give Kraft A Hand · Mar 13, 2026

WhatJustHappened said:
Bah, take a look down the line.
I think you've been giving AJ a handy

You live in Fantasy Football land.

No I live in a world that you can go on google or chat GPT, ask a question and get an answer. Facts don’t care about feelings. Bengals also decided to pay big money to both Higgins and Chase instead of keeping one with Burrow and building OLine and DLine. Trading for AJ right now is the correct time to do so. 2 years from now, not so much.

Zuma · Mar 13, 2026

Zuma · Mar 13, 2026

Wolf said...

“I’ll be real with you. You know, like for the Jets for the past five years, you develop a certain type of hate for this team. But at the end of the day, this league is a business. I have to do what’s best for myself and my family. This place has a great culture of winning and just playing at a high level. So, it was a no-brainer.”

“A fresh start is what I needed,” Vera-Tucker said. “And I appreciated the hell out of the Patriots for wanting me.”

Real fan 02 · Mar 13, 2026

hornetfb85 said:
Not banging the table to trade for Brown here, but don’t mind it if they do. I’m mainly in the thinking of we don’t need to add more middle of the pack receivers. We’ve got a good productive group.

That's a very fair post and great points... it's only a matter of time before AJ gets here.. but to your point it's a fact we didn't win any SBs with a #1.. personally outside of getting AJ my claim has been to obtain a TE that can carry coverage like hernandez did.

whybob · Mar 13, 2026

50-yard-line said:
Question for my fellow posters: if the price were the same: AJ Brown or Max Crosby?

Crosby for me. But the knee is concerning

hornetfb85 · Mar 13, 2026

WhatJustHappened said:
Sorry hornet, this Fantasy Football crap is giving me a fkn headache, and it's the same garbage EVERY DAY.

I was on edge, I apologize.

IF he comes here,I will cheer for him because he'd be on OUR TEAM, but I really don't want to spend the $ and draft picks for a guy that has been an issue at BOTH TEAMS he's been on.

I also would prefer NOT being so 1 dimensional.
I'm sure he'd put up some highlights, he's a Great Player.

Take Care

Absolutely agree with your thinking.

Ring 6 · Mar 13, 2026

mgteich said:
I think that there will be no TE signing other than camp competition for the #3 spot if there is one. We have a #1 TE and a #2 TE.

Your TE 2 playing around 50% of the snaps and caught 15 passes.

Real fan 02 · Mar 13, 2026

Zuma said:
Wolf said...

“I’ll be real with you. You know, like for the Jets for the past five years, you develop a certain type of hate for this team. But at the end of the day, this league is a business. I have to do what’s best for myself and my family. This place has a great culture of winning and just playing at a high level. So, it was a no-brainer.”

“A fresh start is what I needed,” Vera-Tucker said. “And I appreciated the hell out of the Patriots for wanting me.”

Zuma thanks for posting this.. Great piece! Vera-Tucker whenever healthy is arguably a top 10 offensive lineman in the league.. he will be able to help Campbell and Wilson as LG.. he along with the presence of Hill at TE, Gilliam at FB will allow for the running game to be so much better.. love this signing!

patfanken · Mar 13, 2026

Hugepatsfan said:
When people say "#1 WR" I think most of them really mean "#1 receiving option". That can be a TE, like it was with Gronk for years. It's really about having a guy who sets the defense and makes it easier to read coverages because they can't disgusise as much when one guy is drawing so much extra attention.

Pats acquired Moss in 2007 and he was "#1 WR" level through 2009. In 2010, they had no "#1 WR" or "#1 receiving option" because Gronk was a baby, but from 2011 through 2017 he was that level of player for sure. It's not like they weren't great in 2010 still and Gronk missed time with injuries so still from 2011 through 2017 they had to deal with not having that guy and were still productive (even won a SB in 2016). 09-11 weren't McDaniels offenses anyway, so that 2010 year isn't even part of the sample size.

In 2018 he declined to the point they no longer had it and the offense really suffered that year - Brady went from MVP to game manager for most of the year. 2019 the offense struggled again, this time even worse. In 2020, the Cam Newton year, we sucked. 2021 with Mac Jones we started out ok and ending up sucking. Then McDaniels came back last year and we were very good but did fizzle out down the stretch.

Even if you look at his time in DEN, he had B-Marshall for a year as a #1 then traded him and got himself fired that 2nd year without him. And when he traded him, he did use a 1st round pick on Demaryus Thomas so it's not like he didn't place some priority on the position. He went to STL for a year in 2011, didn't have a #1 WR and his offense was LAST in scoring. When he went to Vegas, the first offseason there he made a mega-trade for Davante Adams.

For the pretty heavy majority of McDaniels time as OC here and his coaching history overall, he has had a "#1 WR". A lot of those years that guy just happened to play TE so I think that creates the ILLUSION this his offense isn't built for one. A lot of things go into it, but the years he ran this offense there were serious issues. Again, even those years with the literal GOAT in Tom Brady the offense labored through the post-Gronk prime seasons.

Having a #1 WR type player, even if it was a TE, has been something he's had for most of his history an din situations where he had personnel say it's been something he's used significant draft capital to acquire.

Gronk was NEVER a guy who would be targeted 12-15 times a game like a true #1 is supposed to be. Yes, he was probably our best receiver over his prime years (when he was one the field), but an inline TE like Gronk was, can never be a #1. TE's have limited route trees and a pretty defined role. X's have a much more flexible and wide ranging route tree.

BTW- Fortunately for the Pats, Josh's reputation as one of the better OC's in the league is a lot higher than your view of him. Right now, the Shannahan offense is in vogue, while Josh still runs the EP scheme, which is harder to master for BOTH the QB and WR's, BUT when it IS mastered gives you a more flexible and effective way to deal with defensive problems.

That's what's got me excited. What we saw last season when we were the 3rd best total offense and the 4th best passing offense was just a GLIMPSE of what we can eventually be. It took Brady a decade before he had "all the answers to the test", so Maye has a LONG way to go. But there WILL be a significant step forward in his mastery of this offense this year and even more going forward, so there is a LOT to look forward to for Pats fans in the future

upstater1 · Mar 13, 2026

Give Kraft A Hand said:
So you’re going to ignore facts. Btw who did the Bengals play in that Super Bowl? The Rams who had a WR 1 in Cooper Kupp. Kupp had 1900 yards. Btw putting your points in CAPITAL letters don’t make them any less or more VALID.

That was the weakest Super Bowl I've seen in decades, at least since the Colts - Bears.

Give Kraft A Hand · Mar 13, 2026

upstater1 said:
That was the weakest Super Bowl I've seen in decades, at least since the Colts - Bears.

Oh I agree. But again facts are facts.

TommyD4207 · Mar 13, 2026

Betterthanmost said:
Surprised Njoku is still an available? Lack of demand or his salary demand is not tracking market valuation?

Age/Salary

He's older than you think and is probably looking for more money than he'll actually get.

Hugepatsfan · Mar 13, 2026

patfanken said:
Gronk was NEVER a guy who would be targeted 12-15 times a game like a true #1 is supposed to be. Yes, he was probably our best receiver over his prime years (when he was one the field), but an inline TE like Gronk was, can never be a #1. TE's have limited route trees and a pretty defined role. X's have a much more flexible and wide ranging route tree.

BTW- Fortunately for the Pats, Josh's reputation as one of the better OC's in the league is a lot higher than your view of him. Right now, the Shannahan offense is in vogue, while Josh still runs the EP scheme, which is harder to master for BOTH the QB and WR's, BUT when it IS mastered gives you a more flexible and effective way to deal with defensive problems.

That's what's got me excited. What we saw last season when we were the 3rd best total offense and the 4th best passing offense was just a GLIMPSE of what we can eventually be. It took Brady a decade before he had "all the answers to the test", so Maye has a LONG way to go. But there WILL be a significant step forward in his mastery of this offense this year and even more going forward, so there is a LOT to look forward to for Pats fans in the future

So now we get into the minutia/semantics of what is a "#1 WR" or "#1 WR option".

Moss in 2007 was the #1 WR of all #1 WRs and he got 160 targets in 16 games - exactly 10 per game. Welker in his peak years got up to 174, but obviously a target to Welker is different than a target to Moss based on route tree. Adams was up at 180 targets in his full year with Josh in Vegas (17 games). Brandon Marshall was at 154 targets (in 15 games). Edelman was up close to 10 per game in some years too. So I would agree that Josh has never shown a propensity for the 12-15 targets range you quoted. Though I'm not sure there's any magic to that range vs the sliiiiiiiiightly lower 10-12 range that McDaniels' offenses have regularly had someone hit.

For me, it's less about targets and more about dictating coverage. The EP scheme Josh has ran has always built in option routes and different reads to take advantage of what the defense is doing. Part of that is that you have to actually diagnose what the defense is doing so you can make the reads. That's infinitely times easier when you have a dominant player that they have to base their coverage around. It's just harder to disguise and be creative on the rest of the field when you have to specifically allocate resources to that top guy. Whatever route tree Gronk ran, he clearly was that guy. He obviously drew extra attention. Adams in Vegas was that guy. BMarshall in Denver. I'd argue that Edelman/Welker didn't really move coverages like that despite their volume of catches. They were of course insanely productive, I just don't think they were the kind of matchup nightmares or ran the kind of route trees that draw a ton of extra attention besides some bracket coverage in certain situations. But I digress...

My larger point is that for essentially all of Josh's career he has had and prioritized acquiring the type of player who the defenses "set" their coverage around so to speak and the results when he hasn't had that player (even with Tom Brady) have been much more spotty than when he has had that guy.

WhatJustHappened · Mar 13, 2026

TommyD4207 said:
Age/Salary

He's older than you think and is probably looking for more money than he'll actually get.

Plus he's only played 23 games in the last 2 years.
Good Player, I actually had him on my Fantasy Team once...then he got hurt...

3	386

14	621

11	441

7	339

Patriots Rumor Tracker / FA Signings (Updated: Signings in OP - 4/7)

In the Starting Line-Up

2nd Team Getting Their First Start

In the Starting Line-Up

2nd Team Getting Their First Start

PatsFans.com Supporter

PatsFans.com Supporter

2nd Team Getting Their First Start

Hall of Fame Benchwarmer

Hall of Fame Benchwarmer

Hall of Fame Poster

Practice Squad Player

In the Starting Line-Up

PatsFans.com Supporter

Hall of Fame Poster

PatsFans.com Supporter

PatsFans.com Retired Jersey Club

2nd Team Getting Their First Start

Pro Bowl Player

In the Starting Line-Up

PatsFans.com Supporter

Similar threads

📅 This Week in Patriots History: