Patriots 2021 Offseason Thread

www.bostonsportsjournal.com/2021/05/07/patriots-rookie-development-plan-wr-tre-nixon-central-florida-7th-round/


Unlike a lot of other teams — and this is part of the reason why they’re the Patriots and everyone else isn’t — the Patriots do not hand their draft picks starting positions or main roles before they even set foot on a field or prove themselves. Often, that’s a path to failure for many rookies. The Patriots, instead, put their rookies on the road to success by giving them smaller, defined roles to start with, which then, perhaps, can be expanded once they master the basics.

Michael Lombardi, who has longtime ties to Bill Belichick and was recently a personnel executive with the team, touched on this in his podcast, The GM Shuffle, a few years ago....


Once you draft these guys, you have to have a plan for these guys because if you give them the Manhattan phone directory and say, ‘Learn this,’ he ain’t learning it — you might as well put him off for next year. So you have to define the role for the player as soon as you draft a player. What New England will do is say (Chase) Winovich, he’ll come in and here’s his role. He’s going to play, this, this, X, Y and Z. That’s all. Once he gets that, then maybe we’ll teach him a little bit more. We’ll start to grow him, allow him to grow more. … You have to develop the player. That allows him to have an impact on your team moving forward.”

The Patriots’ approach has been confirmed by multiple team sources and, frankly, it’s fairly obvious if you’ve been paying attention. Patriots draft picks, even if they’re taken in the first round, are not relied upon to start a season unless it’s complete desperation at their position. This is very much by design. “Good teams can take players in Round 1 and develop them. The bad teams have to rely on them,” said a team source.

Funny, I don’t think I’ve said much of anything negative about him. And my last post was a joke to needle you.

I’ll be very happy if Wynn just stays healthy and is the same player he’s been. I’ll be even happier if he stays healthy and improves his pass blocking to be on par with his run blocking.

I don’t care about the doubters, I love this kid. I can’t wait for him to be really good and the excuses roll in...


theathletic.com/2567640/2021/05/05/inside-mac-jones-audition-for-the-patriots-and-the-nfl-stage-the-kid-knows-how-to-prepare/

PATRIOTS WRs rank once again as one of the slowest units in the NFL, just like last year. Only one player can help change that and it's Tre Nixon unless they bring in some more players. So he's about as important as any 7th round pick in recent memory. Help stretch the field for the running game and your short to mid range receiving weapons.

Agholor was at the top of the league in YPC last year, we have somebody to stretch the field. Not concerned about that.


If he goes down however.....different story. Would really, really need Nixon to step up in that scenario

I saw some video of him and he’s better than I expected. Pretty good at getting off the line. Makes plays in all 3 levels. We may have found something in the 7th, I have a feeling if he didn’t get hurt he would’ve gone higher


*when I say “found something” I mean found a possible NFL player, not found a #1 or #2 or anything

His Bama receivers love him to death, that says a lot to me


Waddle and Smith both preferred him over Tua

Agholor was never that guy until last season. Worries me quite a bit.

The reality is, you’re never going to have great backup options for every position on the field. Even when Brady was here, there were years they probably didn’t win it because Gronk was hurt or Edelman or Hightower, etc. That’s the nature of the beast.

Took a quick look at the 3rd WR during the Gronk/Hernandez years (relevant given the likely focus on a 2 TE offense). Woof.

Umm you think that’s a fair comp? In 2010 they had over 2,200 yards and 24 TDs. Neither Smith or Henry have even matched Hernandez best year, nevermind Gronk.

Per fantasy points the two guys we signed were 9th and 11th. Massive upgrade over what we had, yet not the type of TEs that stretch the field and thus can make up for a lack of WRs. They need WRs to open up the short and middle for them to work.

More importantly we no longer have Tom Brady. 

The last time the Patriots played mostly 2 TE sets was during that stretch. The players in question (Gronk, Hernandez and Brady) are only relevant if ANYONE was comparing the success of that offense to any predictions of THIS year.

Since NOBODY was . . .