Polk instead Kingsley Suamataia?

[KCSVEN]

Kingsley did not play well and barely held on, he wasn't good, some people just want to criticize just to criticize. We will see how Polk plays in game 1. Also, kind of dumb to even make a decision after 1 game.

Below is a paid subscriber video but this guy is really good at analyses of line play and you can watch the beginning without paying and get a sense of how he was not anything to write home about and the same people saying draft him over Polk would be saying he's a bust if he played like this for the Patriots first game, where Mahomes and Reid don't bail him out.

Trench Warfare Film Room: Kingsley Suamataia's rookie debut

Analyzing the film of Chiefs rookie LT Kingsley Suamataia's Week 1 debut and showing how the QB can mask clean losses from the OL

trenchwarfare.substack.com

 

[signbabybrady]

This is my biggest concern with Wolf, a potential blindspot at the most important offensive position group after QB.

I don't think it's fair to call it a blind spot. He signed an option in free agency and he drafted one.

It's easy to see that there weren't options available at LT that were as good at their position as Ridley or Aiyuk. So he had to settle you can certainly argue he should have settled on someone else but let's not compare the tackle market to Ridley or Aiyuk there was nothing like that available.

Similarly if you look at who was drafted after at Tackle and WR in the second you will see the WRs were drying up quicker than the tackles so we went Polk then Wallace. It stinks that more options than Wallace didn't fall to us and it may have been a big mistake not to trade up for one of the tackles before the run at the end of the second.

I'm equally dissatisfied with how he managed the OL but sometimes it just is what it is and to assume he automatically prioritizes WRs over tackles is not a fair assumption just because he took a swing at a couple of WRs.

 

[signbabybrady]

I agree. This may be even worse: what if they misevaluated the state of the OL before the draft?

I think they just evaluated that the options were all trash and settled on one instead of over investing in another option.

They could have over spent or made some sort of trade and it would look like they made it a priority but unless there was actually someone worthy of this investment they'd be in the same place.

Unfortunately then something similar occurred on draft day too.

 

[dliverey44]

Is this where we are now? After one game. Not one week of games. One game played in the entire NFL and we are declaring draft picks are already proven to be a mistake and the wrong player picked. Let's see what happens say for the next year or two before we start labeling people awful picks.

And I don't get why people dismiss possession WRs. They aren't as flashy as the X, but there are plenty Pro Bowl, All Pro and even HOF worthy possession WRs in NFL history. I mean Julian Edelman was a possession WR. If Polk turns into a player as good as Edelman, he was an excellent pick.

I would have preferred the Pats draft a LT in the draft. Maybe maybe or maybe not with the Polk pick. But I am not going to kill the Pats for selecting the wrong player before any Patriots player plays a single down of football since the draft.

Where we are now? Don't be silly, this started long before the game last night.

 

[TommyD4207]

He signed an option in free agency and he drafted one.

Let's be clear, he signed a dumpster-diving option in free agency. They weren't in on any tier-1 free agents. Not even in a 'girlfriend vetoed the idea' respect.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

It's pretty terrifying that this is a possibility.

I think the 'Kraft is too cheap to pay top-end free agents' is the only real excuse that would exclude that.

What top end FAs? The best LTs in free agency were:

1) Tyron Smith. The issue with him though isn't level of play, it's availability. He signed a 1 year deal with huge incentives. To come here to a crap team vs. a team with contending aspirations we'd had to have guaranteed it. His track record means you have to expect him to miss tons of time. So for good chunk of the season we'd be looking at the same LT situation we have currently.

2) Jonah Williams. He's been a RT recently because we was so poor at LT that they replaced him. And he hasn't even been great at RT, just passable starter level.

3) Trent Brown. A reunion makes sense on paper but there was so much bad blood last year that it was time to move on.

4) Jermaine Eluemunor. Right tackle player, not a LT guy anyway.

5/6) Yosh Nijman/Josh Jone. Both would be gambles as they've never been starters.

7) Andrus Peat. Been a guard most of his career, just tried out at LT last year.

Those were the FA options at offensive tackle. Only way to "address" it with a quality starter would have been Tyron Smith who's an injury risk and most likely leaves us a chunk of the year with the current situation.

Criticize the overall spending plan, but at OT specifically I don't think there was a viable solution out there.

 

[dliverey44]

I have seen so many people complain that we signed Chuks and then they say we could have signed Williams. So the answer was signing an equally ****ty option to a longer more expensive contract? Um ok all you Bedard, Felgers and Mazz's

 

[TommyD4207]

What top end FAs? The best LTs in free agency were:

1) Tyron Smith. The issue with him though isn't level of play, it's availability. He signed a 1 year deal with huge incentives. To come here to a crap team vs. a team with contending aspirations we'd had to have guaranteed it. His track record means you have to expect him to miss tons of time. So for good chunk of the season we'd be looking at the same LT situation we have currently.

2) Jonah Williams. He's been a RT recently because we was so poor at LT that they replaced him. And he hasn't even been great at RT, just passable starter level.

3) Trent Brown. A reunion makes sense on paper but there was so much bad blood last year that it was time to move on.

4) Jermaine Eluemunor. Right tackle player, not a LT guy anyway.

5/6) Yosh Nijman/Josh Jone. Both would be gambles as they've never been starters.

7) Andrus Peat. Been a guard most of his career, just tried out at LT last year.

Those were the FA options at offensive tackle. Only way to "address" it with a quality starter would have been Tyron Smith who's an injury risk and most likely leaves us a chunk of the year with the current situation.

Criticize the overall spending plan, but at OT specifically I don't think there was a viable solution out there.

Every single player you mentioned is a better option than what the Patriots are currently running out at LT.

 

[JohnJH]

After we took Maye they were then picking ahead of us at the end of each Rd vs ours at the beginning of the next. But should have just traded up into the back of the 2nd Rd and got both.

Gonna also have to watch Paul on Mia too.

Thanks for stating what me and quite a few other people have been saying. They absolutely could have taken both Polk and Suamataia. Even if we are drafting in the Top 5 in the 2025 Draft, a 4th Rd to 7th Rd pick(s) from 2025 (if we even had to do that), would have been worth trading to obtain Suamataia (and again, still get Polk). This would have given us Suamataia at LT, Sow or Robinson at LG, Andrews at Center (another position of need that we'll have in the '25 Off-Season), Onwenu at RG and Wallace at RT. That alone would have possibly allowed for Maye to start as a Rookie (I would not play him behind the OL as currently constructed, but I do like what I've seen and heard about Maye). So, Day 1 starters at LT and Center are must haves in the '25 Off-Season.

 

[Wozzy]

I don't think it's fair to call it a blind spot. He signed an option in free agency and he drafted one.

It's easy to see that there weren't options available at LT that were as good at their position as Ridley or Aiyuk. So he had to settle you can certainly argue he should have settled on someone else but let's not compare the tackle market to Ridley or Aiyuk there was nothing like that available.

There were better free agent options than Okorafor, Lowe, Jordan and Leverett for similar money... WR be damned.

Similarly if you look at who was drafted after at Tackle and WR in the second you will see the WRs were drying up quicker than the tackles so we went Polk then Wallace. It stinks that more options than Wallace didn't fall to us and it may have been a big mistake not to trade up for one of the tackles before the run at the end of the second.

I'm equally dissatisfied with how he managed the OL but sometimes it just is what it is and to assume he automatically prioritizes WRs over tackles is not a fair assumption just because he took a swing at a couple of WRs.

I don't accept "it is what it is" when better options were available. Offensive line should have been the second priority after QB, OT options were drying up as fast or faster than WR. I had a similar grade on Javon Baker that I had on Polk and we got Baker in the 4th.

Time will determine who was right or wrong, but "longterm plan" and "lack of options" is excuse making. This also isn't hindsight expertise because I was here pounding the table on draft day and suggesting better free agent options months ago. We'll see, I may be wrong and accept that as a possibility.

 

[Ring 6]

What top end FAs? The best LTs in free agency were:

1) Tyron Smith. The issue with him though isn't level of play, it's availability. He signed a 1 year deal with huge incentives. To come here to a crap team vs. a team with contending aspirations we'd had to have guaranteed it. His track record means you have to expect him to miss tons of time. So for good chunk of the season we'd be looking at the same LT situation we have currently.

2) Jonah Williams. He's been a RT recently because we was so poor at LT that they replaced him. And he hasn't even been great at RT, just passable starter level.

3) Trent Brown. A reunion makes sense on paper but there was so much bad blood last year that it was time to move on.

4) Jermaine Eluemunor. Right tackle player, not a LT guy anyway.

5/6) Yosh Nijman/Josh Jone. Both would be gambles as they've never been starters.

7) Andrus Peat. Been a guard most of his career, just tried out at LT last year.

Those were the FA options at offensive tackle. Only way to "address" it with a quality starter would have been Tyron Smith who's an injury risk and most likely leaves us a chunk of the year with the current situation.

Criticize the overall spending plan, but at OT specifically I don't think there was a viable solution out there.

I doubt any of those players would have been beaten out by Lardassian Lowe

 

[Since1960]

After we took Maye they were then picking ahead of us at the end of each Rd vs ours at the beginning of the next. But should have just traded up into the back of the 2nd Rd and got both.

Gonna also have to watch Paul on Mia too.

Don't forget McConkey as well who we gave up when we traded off 34 down to 37.

 

[Wozzy]

I doubt any of those players would have been beaten out by Lardassian Lowe

Every one of those players would have beaten out Lowe and Okorafor when healthy.

Anyone suggesting a healthy Tyron Smith wouldn't beat out our scrubs shows a complete break with reality.

 

[Since1960]

I doubt any of those players would have been beaten out by Lardassian Lowe

Can you please send me just a “taste” of whatever you’re sipping??!!

 

[signbabybrady]

Let's be clear, he signed a dumpster-diving option in free agency. They weren't in on any tier-1 free agents. Not even in a 'girlfriend vetoed the idea' respect.

Who were the tier 1 tackles that were available?

 

[signbabybrady]

Every single player you mentioned is a better option than what the Patriots are currently running out at LT.

They were all short term solutions though and you can certainly have the opinion they would have been better than Chucks especially now that he seems to struggle on the left. I'm pretty much in agreement they should have tried one of the other options or even 2 of them but there was nothing to go after at Tackle like Aiyuk or Ridley at WR.

 

[Ring 6]

Can you please send me just a “taste” of whatever you’re sipping??!!

It’s called reality

 

[signbabybrady]

There were better free agent options than Okorafor, Lowe, Jordan and Leverett for similar money... WR be damned.

I don't accept "it is what it is" when better options were available. Offensive line should have been the second priority after QB, OT options were drying up as fast or faster than WR. I had a similar grade on Javon Baker that I had on Polk and we got Baker in the 4th.

Time will determine who was right or wrong, but "longterm plan" and "lack of options" is excuse making. This also isn't hindsight expertise because I was here pounding the table on draft day and suggesting better free agent options months ago. We'll see, I may be wrong and accept that as a possibility.

The free agent options were garbage. Maybe we could have done better with one of the other options but we made a choice that we thought was best for our situation. A Steeler cast off or some aging or injury prone guys were about all that was out there.

As far as the draft maybe they should have gone Tackle at 37 and maybe that option winds up better than Wallace but we weren't getting Polk at 68 so they took the chance that more tackles were on the board and one would last. Time will tell if this is a mistake or not.

 

[signbabybrady]

Don't forget McConkey as well who we gave up when we traded off 34 down to 37.

If we liked McConkey better than Polk i'd assume we would have taken him.

 

[Ring 6]

If we liked McConkey better than Polk i'd assume we would have taken him.

I think the piece if the puzzle that’s alluding you is that when they put together a terrible roster “they got the guys they liked” is more a condemnation than an excuse.