Ah, the doldrums of late February and early March. As soon as the Super Bowl is over, weather-weary New Englanders are ready for spring. We want to see flowers and green grass and leaves on the trees.
“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want…” Mark Twain.
Such is the way with the New England Patriots every spring. The team that was constructed for the long-haul, for continued long-term success. We revel in it, and love to rub other fan bases’ noses in the fact that “this is how you build a team.” and then in late February – early March, the fan base collectively loses its mind and wants to throw caution to the wind.
Diva WRs? Gotta have ‘em, Can’t win without them… “We need anotha’ deep threat Mike!” “Brady’s getting old and needs weaponz!” And my new favorite, “They won’t win anotha’ Super Bowl scoring 13 points!”
Truthfully, all of the talk of the Patriots acquiring Antonio Brown is just that…talk. The Steelers would never send him to New England and with each passing Instagram post he makes, I’d want him less and less.
The talk of Odell Beckham Jr. is quite another. Chris Simms broke the news that the Patriots tried to trade for him in the spring of 2018. And I totally buy that. A look back to last year, they brought in a bevy of veterans and knew that Julian Edelman would be suspended for the first four games of the season.
Plus Beckham was on the back end of his deal, they could have had a one-year rental of a very talented player. They have done this recently like Brandin Cooks the year before and Darrelle Revis.
From a football perspective, Beckham would fit into the Patriots offense easily. He has that short-area quickness off the line, that allows him to get separation quite fast in the short area passing game. He is very good at aligning at different spots on the field and he can create big plays without having to complete low-percentage deep balls. He, along with Julian Edelman, would give Tom Brady a dynamic 1-2 punch at WR. And if Rob Gronkowski does return for one more season, the possibilities are endless.
Would Beckham fit in the locker room? That’s far from a given. Despite Beckham’s quotes about his love for Tom Brady, how will he react on a day where the running game is cooking and Michel et al carry the ball 30+ times?
And then there’s his contract. By signing an extension, the Giants locked him up for several years, where if they trade him, they’d eat his prorated signing bonus ($4 million in 2019 and $16 million overall). His cap hit for the Patriots would be $17 million, a $16,750,000 base salary and a $250,000 workout bonus.
While not excessive compared to other WRs, Edelman’s
Bill Belichick has never wanted to pay big money for his wide receivers, they paid Randy Moss decent money (5 percent of their cap space) but when he insisted on getting big money was shipped out. Cooks was strictly a rental and as soon as he was due his payday was traded. Beckham’s cash is slightly less than 10 percent of the team’s cap space. Would Belichick go that high? His track record says no.
On the subject of cap space, the Patriots, according to our old buddy Miguel Benzan, aka @Patscap currently have $17,905,328 in space as of today. While we know they’re going to create some space by extending some players and releasing others, that would put them in a very bare situation …at least initially.
The Patriots generally like versatile players, guys that can play a position and contribute on Special Teams. Most of the diva WRs (shiny hood ornaments, shamelessly stolen from @footballfacts) are not.
Beckham’s talent is great, of that there is no doubt. But for the money they’ll spend on his salary, the team could sign two good WRs and guys who could also fit into the Patriots offense very well. And then there’s the draft. Belichick and Nick Caserio don’t have the greatest track record of drafting WRs. However, there is some talent out there in the early to mid rounds that would fit in very well.
So, do the Patriots need a “deep threat WR”? No, they don’t. That’s not how this offense operates to its maximum efficiency. While it is nice to have a guy who can stretch the field, they don’t need one. They’ve won six Super Bowls without a true deep threat #1.
Follow me on Twitter @SteveB7SFG or email me at [email protected]Listen to our Patriots 4th and 2 podcasts on blog talk radio as the writers Russ Goldman, Derek Havens and I from PatsFans.com discuss the latest Patriots news and game analysis.
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A former US Army Special Forces NCO and Officer, Steve has been following the Patriots since their days at Fenway Park. Steve has worked in the film industry and wrote as an Military Editor at SpecialOperations.com, 1945.com as a reporter for the Millbury Daily Voice, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, and the Grafton News. He's also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)
