2022 Draft Class of WRs

[Triumph]

No he can't. They'd save around 5 and eat 10million.

It was a ridiculous contract.

The Pats have dead money cap hits every season. Maybe he still gets cut along with Harry because something must de done. Id like to see 2 new WRs out there in 2022..

 

[Triumph]

Ok. First, I do not see Harry on the team in 2022.

Second, who do you cut? Bourne and Meyers stay, Agholor, Smith and Henry carry big cap hits. All I said was to go get another veteran WR in free agency. I did not say stand pat. See what you can bring in free agency. That's it.

Cut Harry and Agahlor.

Keep Jonnu even though he was less than impressive. He is still is a good TE to go to if anything happened tp Henry. FA Allen Robinson would be killer with Mac. Hes a chain mover who thrives on tough contested receptions.

The Patriots have six draft choices. Six or fewer position groups to choose a player in the draft. I would not take a WR in the draft. My choices are OL, DL, LB and DB. Six picks.

They did not lose to the Bills in the playoffs because of the offense. The Bills scored on all seven possessions. The defense never got off the field. What would you do?

The Patriots did not score a TD until the 3rd quarter with 4:12 on the clock. 3 NE drives lasted 2:17 minutes or less and the longest NE drive was 6: 53 to end the game with Buffalo gladly letting the Patriots chew the clock up.

Remember when Brady went on a 7 minute opening drive in the 2018 AFCC vs the Chiefs? KC hardly had the chance to score in the 1st half. The previous week, Brady went on an almost 8 minute opening drive vs the Chargers keeping their offense off the field.

I just dont see the Pats keeping up with these high scoring teams if the offense isnt improved.

 

[upstater1]

There was this video by a guy on youtube that talked about the past 20 (now 22) super bowl contenders. I'll link it. The point there has been a tend on how to build a super bowl team.

You need to be top 7 in as many of the following as possible... QB play, pass catching and coverage. You don't need to be top 7 in all of them, but the more the better. You also can't particularly suck anywhere. Pass rush can be valuable but you need to be dominant at it or it is pretty much a waste of an investment. So either you have the best pass rush or you have nothing. Unless you are lucky enough to face badly injured offensive lines in the playoffs.

The point of this post is that WR has become super valuable in the modern NFL. It use to be an over hyped position, but the relatily has now caught up to the hype under the new rules. If the Pats want a chance to win (assuming Jones won't be a top 7 QB we almost need a top 7 pass catching core (this can be TEs and RBs too though... but you need WRs). So we need to hit here. And we need to invest here.

link

Doesn't it depend on how good your QB is?

The Patriots won in Atlanta throwing to Mitchell, Amendola and Edelman.

Against the Rams, it was Edelman again.

They threw for 500+ yards throwing to Amendola and Chris Hogan.

 

[upstater1]

People, we need to adjust our sense of WR pay. With the new cap, Agholor's $5m is like league minimum for a non-starting receiver.

You're not going to find better for that price. So let his contract play out and then you have $11m to spend on a WR next year.

 

[zipster9]

My hope is Patriots draft (in priority order)

- Chris Olave (route runner and fast)
- Jahan Dotson (route runner and slot guy)
- Jameson (Alabama reunion)
- Elam (CB - top man-man)
- Lloyd (Young LB)
- Dean or Harris (2nd tier LB)
- Faafalele (A beast tackle, 6'9")

 

[50-yard-line]

???

Why do we have a cap hit of more than $5M if he is traded? We would woe more only if the new team cut him before paying him.

I was responding to the comment that he could be CUT (not traded) easily.

Cutting him, the Pats would eat $10m.

 

[50-yard-line]

It was a ridiculous contract.

The Pats have dead money cap hits every season. Maybe he still gets cut along with Harry because something must de done. Id like to see 2 new WRs out there in 2022..

Hmm...here's a thought: throw him the effing ball more than 4 times a game.

Receivers can't catch what ain't thrown their way, you know, and I saw at least two long plays early in the year where Agholor was wide open - easy TD - and was ignored.

Agholor averaged 3.74 TARGETS/game.
The only WR or TE on the Pats who got more than 5/game was Meyers at 7.4 (125 targets - second was Henry with only 75). In contrast, Mike Giseiki got 112, Cooper Kupp 191, Adams 169, Diggs 164, HIll 159, Kelce 134...

If you're going to run an offense that throws to five different guys (WR and TE, not even including RBs) 5 times a game, do you think ANYONE is going to have the kind of stats that would make you happy?

You can make the argument it's because no one's getting open, but I think it's scheme more than anything else.

And a final note on Agholor: the current FRANCHISE for a WR is $21m+. Agholor makes about half that at 11/per. He is most certainly NOT paid like a #1 WR in the current NFL, particularly since he's on a deal that's only a only a year old, as opposed to being in the end years of a long deal that became outdated, like Gilmore, for example.

Also, the franchise tag for a TE is going to be around 11m this year - and there are a ton of decent TEs coming off rookie deals, so expect that to leap next year and the year after. Both of NE's TEs will be paid middle of the pack money in two years.

 

[DaBruinz]

.I would guess it depends on what happens with Devante Adams. I'm all for moving on from Harry and to a lesser extent Agholor.

The Packers are 50M over the cap currently. I was going to say they were going to franchise Adams, but they literally can't unless they do a LOT of adjustments in the next few weeks to free up more than 70M.. And even then I'm not sure they can without actually CUTTING players. Adams' franchise tag is going to be 20.145M because that's 20% of his previous year's salary

Cutting/Trading Preston Smith would save them 12.5M.
They could pick up another 12.5M from Rodgers contract on a simple restructure.
Not sure how much they'll get from giving Jaire Alexander an extension.. 7M, maybe?
They'd get $15M from cutting Z'Darius Smith, outright. Or by trading him.
They'd save 6.7M Cutting/Trading Randall Cobb.

The Packers really should have traded Rodgers prior to last year. Now they're stuck with a 39 year old QB in the last year of a deal that will be hard to unload.

The Broncos, Colts and Commanders are the only teams that really have the cap space to accommodate taking on Rodgers. Well, the Dolphins have the space and their owner is a bit of a moron, so he could try and make a deal. He DID try and get Brady and he was nosing around Watson.

 

[DaBruinz]

And a final note on Agholor: the current FRANCHISE for a WR is $21m+. Agholor makes about half that at 11/per. He is most certainly NOT paid like a #1 WR in the current NFL, particularly since he's on a deal that's only a only a year old, as opposed to being in the end years of a long deal that became outdated, like Gilmore, for example.

The current franchise number is 18.5M for WR. However, it's $20.154M for Adams because the franchise tag requires a 20% increase over the previous year.

 

[DaBruinz]

That's fine, but you are changing the topic of the conversation - the definition of "the problem" that the OP brought here.

No. I'm not changing the topic. The topic is the 2022 WR Draft class. You're the one who claimed that the Patriots didn't have an adequate WR corps. You're also the one who said there wasn't an issue with the running game. And there is, though it's not the RBs.

Maybe you should pay attention to what you post so that you understand why you're getting the response you do.

 

[venecol]

That is why the Pats are most likely to tag and trade Jackson.

And Aghlor can be cut this offseason pretty easily.

Only if you're willing to take a $10M hit.


His cap is $15M not the $11M others are claiming.

 

[venecol]

People, we need to adjust our sense of WR pay. With the new cap, Agholor's $5m is like league minimum for a non-starting receiver.

You're not going to find better for that price. So let his contract play out and then you have $11m to spend on a WR next year.

Where are you getting $5M?

 

[RIpats88]

Are you daring me to bring out my Patriots drafting WR analysis!?!?! I have copyrighted it, just so you're aware.

But anyway, the Patriots have only succeeded in finding 4 WRs over the last 22 years. You have to add Givens and Mitchell.

But they've also used barely any premium picks (top 3 rounds). 7 picks in 22 years is a league low.

Of their 16 picks (I'm counting Braxton Berrios as a miss but I'm not counting Matthew Slater at all as a pick or a miss), several of them have been 7th rounders, like Edelman, but also like Ebert, Gallon, Lucien, etc.

In other words, we do have a bad 25% success rate (compare to the Steelers 33% rate), but we almost never use premium picks of the position, and when we do it's mostly disastrous. For one Branch, we have multiple Dobson, Tate, Harry, Chad Jacksons.

That being said, you look at the Steelers and they hit 3 of 8 premium picks in the last 8 years. (Yes, the Steelers have drafted more WRs with premium picks in the last 8 years than Bill has drafted in the last 22 years). They succeeded with Dionte Johnson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Claypool, but failed with the likes of Wheaton, Archer, Bryant, Washington, Coates.

Patriots are bad at evaluating, but they also don't expend much to actually find a WR, even if it's just dumb luck (i.e. the way the Steelers do it).

Problem is that when we do use premium picks we get guys like nkeal harry.

Sure there will be busts. But when EVERY other receiver drafted after him is a stud and he barely can play the position it's frustrating.

 

[50-yard-line]

The current franchise number is 18.5M for WR. However, it's $20.154M for Adams because the franchise tag requires a 20% increase over the previous year.

My bad - point still stands.

 

[upstater1]

Problem is that when we do use premium picks we get guys like nkeal harry.

Sure there will be busts. But when EVERY other receiver drafted after him is a stud and he barely can play the position it's frustrating.

But the best team at this is only 3 of 8 (Steelers in the last 8 years). Our only other try in that time frame was Aaron Dobson in 2013. They're 3 for 8, we're 0 for 2.

Heck, in the last 11 drafts, we've only used 2 premium picks (1st 3 rounds) on WRs.

I can't even begin to describe how low this is.

 

[Love The Drake]

I’m terrified of Mcdaniels trading one spot in front of us and grabbing Bama Williams.

 

[upstater1]

Where are you getting $5M?

We're talking about the cap hit for cutting him (in other words, the real cost if you get rid of him). You only save $5m by getting rid of him.

 

[rochrist]

Edelman was a 7th and Branch was a 2nd. 2 guys in 20 + years.. I'll stand by my comment.

Plus Malcolm Mitchell who was instrumental in a SB win. Sadly his knees didn't hold up. Braxton Berrios is coming on, kind of following a JE type progression. He was a victim of numbers here.

 

[realtime]

Problem is that when we do use premium picks we get guys like nkeal harry.

Sure there will be busts. But when EVERY other receiver drafted after him is a stud and he barely can play the position it's frustrating.

Like JJAW and Andy Isabella? As bad as Harry is, it could have been even worse. Who knows if the Pats even had Deebo and AJ Brown ranked higher than these two guys?

 

[BobDigital]

Doesn't it depend on how good your QB is?

The Patriots won in Atlanta throwing to Mitchell, Amendola and Edelman.

Against the Rams, it was Edelman again.

They threw for 500+ yards throwing to Amendola and Chris Hogan.

It is a combination And you don't need all 3. It's actually very rare to have all there. But they had the QB an the coverage units in 14, 16 and 18. If you don't have that QB you have likely need 2 of the other 3 to have a good shot. Admittedly there is some interconnection there, but that works both ways. Your QB can lift up your WRs, but your WRs can also lift up your QB. The shocking part is when you take the Brady appearances out of the mix, the WRs become even more important in the modern NFL. As almost every other team to make it in the past 10 or so years had a better passing catching core than the ones Brady had. For the most part.