Was WR Nelson Agholor Misused in the Patriots Offense (how to fix), or just a Terrible Contract/Signing from the Start?

[TheRainMaker]

It's both. He was misused and a terrible signing. Algholor isn't a number 1 or even a 2. He's a 3 and we paid him way to much for how we used him.

The Raiders used him as a down field threat. A guy who was the 3rd option on the Raiders O who primarily ran deep routes for a team that likes to take deep shots. A good role for him. We ran a heavy run oriented scheme with a rookie QB who was asked to get the ball out on time and not make mistakes. We barely took any deep shots.

Algholor is not good enough to be one of the focus's of an offence, he's never been that. Horrible signing.

Yep. It was Waller, Ruggs and then him.

 

[Sciz]

Yep. It was Waller, Ruggs and then him.

Agholor was second on the team in receiving yards, second on the team in targets, second on the team in receiving TDs, second on the team in yards per game. That's not a #3 receiver.

(He was third on the team in catches and catches per game, behind Renfrow, not Ruggs.)

 

[kennyb]

Just anther atrocious signing by belichick. Grasping at straws to cover up his pitiful record at drafting.

Watch the amazing deebo samuel. Now realize we have this utter non football player who doesn't seem to know how to catch a football and we drafted him ahead of Samuel. Just so disgusting, so pitiful. Not only has the drafter kept his job, he got a raise to 25mm.

Kraft should plaster belichick's office with samuel's picture. Rub his smug face in it.

 

[FCB02062]

agholor was misused in captain conservatives three yards and a cloud of dust offense

 

[50-yard-line]

Nelson Agholor was signed by the Patriots for 2 years, $26M.

Wrong.

Wynn ($11m)

11m for a left tackle (and an option that had to be exercised before the season started) is CHEAP.

, Godchaux (11M).

Wrong again.

If you can't make your point honestly, you're not really making a point.

Agholor is paid like #2 WR in the NFL. That's what he is.
Godchaux is paid like a Tier 3 DL in the NFL. That's what he is.

To answer your question: imo, both Agholor and Smith were badly misused this year - maybe that had to do with McDaniels trying to find a comfort zone for Mac Jones.

 

[doesntmatter1]

He fit in fine. Defenses respected his speed and it opened up space for Meyers. He caught most of what was thrown his way. Not his fault he wasn't used more. Want to argue that he is overpaid, sure but we were desperate for an actual wr. We were hoping for more of a Brandin Cooks and got more of a Dorsett.

He is the least of our problems on offense. We still don't have a te2. God forbid Hunter Henry were to go down, but what would we do? Jonnu would suck as the only te and the same would be said of Lacosse, Asiasi, and whoever else we got. Time wasted on guys like Harry is preventing others from breaking through. If Harry was gone maybe Gunner would already have become our next slot guy by now or Wilkerson/random guy.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Wrong.

11m for a left tackle (and an option that had to be exercised before the season started) is CHEAP.


Wrong again.

If you can't make your point honestly, you're not really making a point.

Agholor is paid like #2 WR in the NFL. That's what he is.
Godchaux is paid like a Tier 3 DL in the NFL. That's what he is.

To answer your question: imo, both Agholor and Smith were badly misused this year - maybe that had to do with McDaniels trying to find a comfort zone for Mac Jones.

Maybe read the SI article directly linked. 26M/2 years. Don't try to deflect.

 

[jdlboot14]

The biggest error is that BB gives a sh*t about a "#1WR" - that junk is only important in fantasy.
It's about your role, and doing what is needed in the scheme. The only time we've had a true #1WR was Moss in 07. (although Welker had more receptions). Branch, Edelman were most productive in their eras, but not traditional #1WR's. They were all complimentary with serviceable outside receivers and good TE's. (great in Gronk-time '10-'16)
Agholor wasn't productive enough, but neither was Mac. If Mac improves as he should, Agholor and Smith should increase production in a full offseason. I don't think starting over with another expensive FA WR will improve that much, unless they mortgage the team for a guy like Adams or Godwin - but that won't happen. A mid-level slot addition like Berrios or Miller would be my vote for WR help.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Agholor was second on the team in receiving yards, second on the team in targets, second on the team in receiving TDs, second on the team in yards per game. That's not a #3 receiver.

(He was third on the team in catches and catches per game, behind Renfrow, not Ruggs.)

 

[Squish the Fish]

Nelson Agholor's decline in stats is mostly on Patriots having a rookie QB(Mac Jones) and shaky offensive line at times. He is good enough to be a number 2 receiver as long as he isn't dropping the ball a lot which he wasn't this past season but Jones and the offensive line need to do their parts.) Agholor was open by a decent amount when the ball wasn't thrown his way quite a bit and it wasn't like he was really bad with a bunch of key drops. For a rookie pocket passing QB, Mac Jones appeared to be a "good processor" but by a veteran QB standards he was still below average in that department.

It isn't that much Agholor's fault that Mac Jones underthrew him vs the Bills in the playoffs and that one throw plus some better defense kind of would have changed the narrative on this season. Maybe a true number 1 receiver knows enough to highpoint that moderately underthrown ball but he clearly got open at arguably the most pivotal point of the entire season and Mac missed the throw by enough for Bill's safety to make the play. In order for Agholor to work well this upcoming season, Mac Jones needs to get better/more comfortable throwing to him and the offensive line needs to get more consistent/better. As Jones hopefully gets more experience, the play calling could be less predictable/conservative as well.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

A few things about Agholor’s breakout season in 2020:

• Darren Waller absolutely balled out with 1200 yards and got doubled often. Agholor wasn’t the #1 target.
• Derek Carr is a very good QB.
• His 18.7 yards/reception were an absurd outlier from his career norm.
• Biggest point: the Raiders didn’t make a big effort to re-sign him.

Really…look how ridiculous that 2020 season is. Brady Anderson territory.

The guy is normally a 500-600 yard receiver, which is roughly what he was here. The Patriots took a chance that he had a breakout year and not an inexplicably lucky year. The gamble didn’t pay off.



Agholor has always been an inefficient big play guy…not a chain mover. In LV, he had an absurd number of deep plays. He still wasn’t a #1 receiver who gets first downs, still catching under 60% even in his huge year.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

A few things about Agholor’s breakout season in 2020:

• Darren Waller absolutely balled out with 1200 yards and got doubled often. Agholor wasn’t the #1 target.
• Derek Carr is a very good QB.
• His 18.7 yards/reception were an absurd outlier from his career norm.
• Biggest point: the Raiders didn’t make a big effort to re-sign him.

Really…look how ridiculous that 2020 season is. Brady Anderson territory.

The guy is normally a 500-600 yard receiver, which is roughly what he was here. The Patriots took a chance that he had a breakout year and not an inexplicably lucky year. The gamble didn’t pay off.



Agholor has always been an inefficient big play guy…not a chain mover. In LV, he had an absurd number of deep plays. He still wasn’t a #1 receiver who gets first downs, still catching under 60% even in his huge year.

So.... Bad contract from the start ??

 

[Ring 6]

The attempts were there, as his average depth of target was still in the top 10 deepest in the NFL. They just didn't complete as many long ones, with his average depth of completion falling from 13.9 yards (2nd among qualifiers) to 9.6 (27th).

Good info. Can you link where you get those stats??

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

So.... Bad contract from the start ??

Was there ever much doubt? Pretty much a classic free agent trap. Though he wasn’t that expensive for the position. Not a historically bad signing or anything but a mediocre player getting paid way above his value by the team with the most money.

 

[Ring 6]

Wrong.

11m for a left tackle (and an option that had to be exercised before the season started) is CHEAP.


Wrong again.

If you can't make your point honestly, you're not really making a point.

Agholor is paid like #2 WR in the NFL. That's what he is.
Godchaux is paid like a Tier 3 DL in the NFL. That's what he is.

To answer your question: imo, both Agholor and Smith were badly misused this year - maybe that had to do with McDaniels trying to find a comfort zone for Mac Jones.

Agholor 2/22
Godchaux 2/15
Wynn. 3.6 mill in 2021 10.4 in 2022

New England Patriots Salary Cap | Over the Cap

New England Patriots salary cap, contracts, bonus money, dead money, and cap savings for every player

overthecap.com

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Agholor 2/22
Godchaux 2/15
Wynn. 3.6 mill in 2021 10.4 in 2022

New England Patriots Salary Cap | Over the Cap

New England Patriots salary cap, contracts, bonus money, dead money, and cap savings for every player

overthecap.com

I stand corrected, Godchaux is 10.4M not 11M. Still a massive bust.

 

[Squish the Fish]

The biggest error is that BB gives a sh*t about a "#1WR" - that junk is only important in fantasy.
It's about your role, and doing what is needed in the scheme. The only time we've had a true #1WR was Moss in 07. (although Welker had more receptions). Branch, Edelman were most productive in their eras, but not traditional #1WR's. They were all complimentary with serviceable outside receivers and good TE's. (great in Gronk-time '10-'16)
Agholor wasn't productive enough, but neither was Mac. If Mac improves as he should, Agholor and Smith should increase production in a full offseason. I don't think starting over with another expensive FA WR will improve that much, unless they mortgage the team for a guy like Adams or Godwin - but that won't happen. A mid-level slot addition like Berrios or Miller would be my vote for WR help.

I pretty much agree with all of what you are saying but the last sentence.....and obviosly the Patriots had Moss for more than one year. If you are talking Miller from Tampa Bay, he seems to really best be suited to Nelson Agholor insurance or cheap replacement if he was on a rookie contract. Despite watching him the last two years when he was healthy at least, I haven't seen enough out of him to think he could be a good slot receiver. At the end of the season, he really had gone down Tampa's wide receiver depth chart from 4th last year to 6th or 7th this year. He was even behind Tyler Johnson and 2 other players picked up off the scrap heap. A lot of this was Tampa trying to replace the slot ability of Godwin/Brown and the blocking of Godwin. Miller wasn't deemed good in those areas.

And as for slot receiver, I really think the Patriots need an elite one to move the ball in that area. They have a bunch of okay ones but no one that is elite.

I tend to agree that Belichick is never overly fixated on acquiring number 1 receivers but Cooks was a number 1 receiver based upon his salary and what teams have traded for him and his production...just a lower tier one so that is why Belichick rented at a reasonable cost instead of bought. 2300 yard and 17 TDs were his combined stats the two years before Belichick traded for him. Belichick does care about number 1 receivers since he is a football historian and realizes they can help win Super Bowls but he just isn't going to overpay for a traditional one if he feels the market is out of whack and he would be better off investing elsewhere.

Outside a true number 1 receiver or elite slot receiver....the Patriots easiest path to getting better on offense is just improving the offensive line which would give all the receivers/tight ends a little more time to get open and hoping for some internal growth from Mac Jones.

 

[Nunchucks]

Carr has a better arm which gives Agholor more opportunities.

Agholor was a clear number 2 with the Raiders...sometimes a number 3.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Wat until BB gets a first round WR and then everything will change.....

Huh? What? really? OK, Nevermind....

I doubt any WR was going to have a career year, transitioning to a new offense, which is also starting a rookie QB.

I agree that Samuel, Brown, anyone would have been better than Harry. The problem is that the Pats need defense, so they don't have the luxury of grabbing a 1st Rd WR this year. I'm hoping that Metchie drops into maybe the third round.

There are a bunch of very good WR set to become FAs, but no cap space.

 

[Family]

He did get a deep pass in the Buffalo playoff game which he didn't help Mac's margin of error by alligator arming it. We need guys with a better catch radius who don't require perfect passes in the bread basket.

The attempts were there, as his average depth of target was still in the top 10 deepest in the NFL. They just didn't complete as many long ones, with his average depth of completion falling from 13.9 yards (2nd among qualifiers) to 9.6 (27th).

The Buffalo deep pass displayed my problem with Agholar.

He didn't go for the ball.

OK the pass was not perfect perfect, but every QB expects their WR to fight for that ball.

The pass was as good as it needed to be. Fault receiver.