Patriots 2021 Offseason Thread

He's in a group of guys I'd take for depth. Yet I want Nixon who most see as the best pass rushing DT in the class. It's like the last piece on the DL to wreak havoc on QBs. Reminds me of Short who was on the Panthers for years. I want that explosion and athletic ability from a DT, even if he's a little raw. He's like a much better Adam Butler.

If you take 2, I can’t really see how you do it unless the second one is a late round guy who doesn’t need to make the roster. Cant take 2 that you need to roster due to draft position. There’s just not room on the roster for that.

I wasn't expecting much but sad to see it go this way. What a career!

Damn, well at least that helps clear things up. Luckily for us this might be the best slot WR class I've ever seen in recent memory.

Yet you still hate to see it end like this.

Agree to disagree. I see a depth signing of someone they like. If he stinks during camp I bet you can easily trade him, heck even a full release only cost a little of two million extra. I can get behind he's likely to make it, not that he's a roster lock with Bill as the GM given that contract. It's basically just a one year prove it type deal.

Thanks for the memories Julian Edelman!!

If he ever gets healthy enough to unretire it won't be hard to guess where he winds up. lol

According to PatsCap, looks like they gained $2.5m, and by releasing him as injured he is eligible for a $2m injury benefit (which is a $1.2M cap hit that I'm assuming is included in the new cap number). $15M+ available now, $3m needed for draft picks.

What a hell of a career

From busting in as a ST, to playing some corner in 2011, to establishing himself as the most important Patriots WR in the teams history.....just wow. Not many career arcs like that. He’s special. It’s been an absolute pleasure to be able to witness somebody with so much heart and determination accomplish so much

Immediate induction into the Pats HOF when Gillette is at full capacity plz

Yes they have and like I said he'd be easy to trade at like $1.6 million for the trading team.

This team needs young high upside WR to create competition.  That means drafting a bunch of guys because the bust rate is rather high at WR. I can't think of a better problem than having too many WRs, well okay having too many QBs.

With the Edelman news, I'd say it's now almost a must that you take two WRs. It matches need, it matches one of the strengths of the draft and it just makes sense in today's NFL. One of the Patriots big issues has been not taking enough WRs. Without a Brady you need more weapons. Doubling dipping is something Bill has a long history of doing during the draft.

Trading him does make a difference, the number is 4.25 million then. 

You're going down a rabbit hole here, I said I didn't  see him as a roster lock, not that he was unlikely to make the roster.

Maybe I am, yet the Patriots have a very spotty record with WRs and now there's no Brady. If I remember right you think they found something with Bourne. Yet he's coming from a similar offense that had better QBs. So I find it hard to see untapped upside. I see talk about how he can play outside, yet had a 4.68 40 time. I see a decent WR signed to provide depth. It's been well reported how badly the Patriots misread the WR market, so I think you're reading too much into that contract. You can't compare these moves to typical Patriots moves. Every deal was bigger than our biggest deal last year.

My point from the get go was if the draft broke the right way I'd draft two guys and let them battle in camp. Maybe they keep an extra guy, maybe Harry gets traded or maybe Bourne goes. I don't see his contract saving him if we happened to land better WRs and he slipped down the WR rankings. I take it you've studied the WR class, it's not crazy that could happen with this class. I'm not passing up taking a potential second impactful WR if the value is great because of a WR we've yet to even see practice with the team. Take the players and figure the rest out latter. I want to finally be in a position where we maybe have too many good WRs

Mock drafts are crazy fun and give you a perspective on the draft you just can't get without doing them. Sometimes you want to just have some fun and try crazy things. I get it. I don't get posting the craziest trade I've ever seen anyone propose in a mock draft ever. Come on now, a future third round pick to move up six spots in the middle of the six round? A future six round pick would be darn good value given it's the Texans. A future 5th would be a steal, that would net you likely more than ten times more value. A future third is getting 100 times more value. I'm all for things that push the limits, absolutely best case scenario type crap, yet that is like play a sports video game and trading Stidham for Brady. Shame on PFF for even allowing that.

The Michael Carter pick isn't crazy based on his rankings. Yet I hate it, I feel you just used a top 100 pick on a slightly bigger JJ Taylor. You had to have passed on a bunch of good WRs, even some QBs and numerous other players. To make matters worse every scouting report talks about him having to improve his receiving skills. I think Demetric Felton is the best RB receiver in the draft and he's a 4th/5th round guy. Even then I question if that's the best use of our resources without getting a new QB. Newton couldn't come close to using White like Brady could, he doesn't have the accuracy to target him down field. Now if the goal was to get a more elusive RB that can make players miss unlike White I get it, yet that's what JJ Taylor can do.

I'd love it if someone could explain how to insert pictures. I send them to google docs to create links, yet it's not working. So I'll have to write this out.

This is my trade down and hit the value of this given draft. It didn't workout exactly as I wanted. Yet it's just a decent example of what trading down a few times could do to hit the value sections of this draft more.

33. Terrance Marshall WR
46. Daviyon Dixon DT
64. Nick Bolton ILB
82. Tylan Wallace WR
96. Kyle Trask QB
110. Tutu Atwall WR
120. Shaun Wade CB
122. Aaron Banks OG
139. DJ Daniels CB
177. Kylin Hill RB
188. Chauncey Golston DL
197. Jose Borregales K
242. Jacob Harris WR/TE

I was targeting a CB or Collins late first, they went right before my pick, so I traded down for the third time out of the first.

Yet I hit all my needs and went after value picks. Yeah 13 players is crazy, yeah three WRs and a combo guy is crazy. Yeah a lot of this guys might not make the team. I just couldn't resist those weapons at those spots. Got my pass rushing DT, faster LB to replace Bentley, my boy in Trask, two risky yet high upside CBs, a very good guard that Notre Dame wanted to play at LT next year, nice depth at RB, a kicker, Golston is just a depth pick because of value and Harris likely converts to TE, again just too much value to pass on him.

I basically did a Bill type draft, without waisting all the extra picks he gets trading back up. I didn't trade up once. It's the draft picks busts all the time, so take a bunch and increase your chances approach. I feel darn confident that you just did amazing things to our WR core going forward.