It's unlikely that Douglas or Boutte make it to the PS. No way I keep Parker over either of them.
the more I think on it the LESS likely I see the Pats making a serious push for him.
First I think the WR's we already have are competent at worst. Parker, Bourne and JJ are ALL proven capable NFL WR's and Thornton is someone who has special athletic abilities and needs the reps if he hopes to BECOME a good to great WR.
Second is who we have at TE. We are likely to be in 2 TE groupings with Gisecki getting "Joker" looks and a lot of targets. Also with Washington and the Harvard kid are also "joker" types. It looks like BOB wants to make it a big part of the offense going forward.
Third, you have the fact that you drafted 2 WR's to develop
So if you can get past the issues of Hopkins bad break up with BOB, his desire to sign with a "superbowl contender", which the Pats are NOT, to start this season, his intentional indifference that Hopkins showed at coming to NE, AND the facts of his age recent injury past and desire to be paid as a top 10 WR; you STILL wind up with the issues I mentioned above.
If he's here, will he get the targets that will make his signing worth while.
Now I believe Hopkins IS still a top WR. Even though he was injured the last 2 season, when he was on the field he STILL averaged around 70 ypg receiving, so he was productive. So that is not an issue with me. The issue with me is how much of a difference with THIS team.
I'm guessing that this is going to be a team that will run the ball around 45% of the time and will matriculate the ball down the field with a intricate short to mid range passing attack with the hope that Thornton will provide some deep route threat. We already have the receivers to adequately fit that kind of offense.
Adding Hopkins isn't going to change that, AND might also slow down the hoped for development from the Rookies and Thornton..
So to me Hopkins would be a luxury item, NOT a necessary one, like a lot of people think. There isn't going to BE a #1 WR on this team, but rather a passing offense by committee, very much like EVERY passing offense Bill has had, (except for the Moss years).