“As bad as the Patriots are, we have no shortage of stuff to talk about up here!”
That was how NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry said hello to BMitch & Finlay on Thursday, and while he was obviously alluding to Bill Belichick going to North Carolina, the big issue related to DC is of course the Commanders claiming K.J. Osborn off waivers from New England.
No idea if Osborn will play at all Sunday, but Perry gave the guys an idea of why he’s here.
“Just another failed free agent signing by Elliot Wolf and this front office; it’s been a tough go in their first year here, outside of the most important decision of staying at No. 3 and drafting Drake Maye, who looks like a real player at that position,” Perry said. “That group in the front office really hasn't been able to do much else, including find receiver talent, and K.J. Osborn was supposed to be this high-floor, pro’s pro who will keep you afloat if the young receivers you’re investing in have a hard time developing, can't join the program immediately and get off to a good start.”
And then…
“What they found, and I'm sure Commanders fans are hoping that this isn't the case now that he's in DC, but what they found basically as soon as he got to training camp was that they felt like he didn't have the kind of juice athletically that they were expecting,” Perry said. “They were watching him in these camp practices and they felt like he looked like he was running in mud. And so I think that was a tough foot for him to start off his relationship with the Patriots on, and it just never got better despite the fact that they are, arguably, the worst receiver room in football.”
And yet, Osborn was only active for seven games despite all that?
“He comes in, he looks slower than you thought, that’s fine, but if they had other talented pieces who were taking snaps away from him, that would be one thing,” Perry said. “It’s Kendrick Bourne, who’s had a really hard time coming back from a torn ACL last year; it’s Ja’Lynn Polk, who's been a complete bust, at least to this point, as a second-round pick who has given them nothing; and it’s Javon Baker, who can’t get on the field as a fourth-round pick out of UCF. So these guys aren’t playing well and K.J. Osborn still couldn't do anything, and it led to frustration for him and both sides decided to move on.”
Could it just be then that the Pats knew right away they made a mistake and they’re just spinning it in their favor?
“Washington must have seen something – and he had his plays; there's one in Jacksonville where he's running down the seam in a critical situation late in the game, he finds an opening and Drake Maye hit him for a touchdown,” Perry said. “So, it's not like he looks out of place out there or looks hurt, so how much juice has he really lost? He had enough in those legs to produce in Minnesota last year, so maybe it started with them saying they need speed on the field and he wasn’t providing that – and if you’re Osborn, and he was pretty open talking about this, but he’s seeing a team that’s clearly not invested in him in the long-term and they want these young guys to produce, so he didn’t really have a place there, and maybe eventually there became some piece to their broken relationship that was motivation-related or just overall demeanor and attitude-related.”
Perry told a story about how Osborn still acted the part, even after an Instagram post about how he was activated for the Jaguars game in London when he wasn’t supposed to be and started flexing a bit, which goes back to that last point he made.
“If that was it, I would have thought they would have done it soon after it happened, because again, he wasn't playing; I think five of their last six games he hasn't taken a snap, and there have been games where he's been in uniform and hasn't touched the field,” Perry said. “So, I would have thought they would do this a long time ago, but the fact of the matter is you can't trade a guy who has no interest elsewhere. So I don't know what sparked the release of KJ; maybe he went and had a conversation with them, or they just decided this guy is not going to play the last four weeks of the season for us here so we're going to let him go, but clearly, he was not in their plans and, and really hasn't been since he got here.”
Of course, as JP noted, it was also a lot easier getting open in Minnesota with Justin Jefferson on the other side and a better QB, so who knows – but you can listen to Perry’s entire call-in, including his thoughts on Belichick to UNC, above!