Ever since Odell Beckham Jr. said Bill Belichick almost got him to join the Patriots last season, New England has repeatedly been listed as a top contender to sign the free-agent receiver in 2022.
In fact, the betting site Bovada tabbed New England as the overwhelming favorite to land the now-Super Bowl champion pass-catcher back in April, though they've since slipped down the list of players in the Beckham sweepstakes.
NFL Network's Kyle Brandt, however, still likes the Patriots as an under-the-radar landing spot for the dynamic 29-year-old receiver and said as much Monday on "Good Morning, Football!"
"If no one else is going to say it, I'll say it: send him to New England, "The Land of Misfit Toys" of wide receivers," Brandt said after other NFL analysts on the segment, including former Patriots and Colts defensive back Darius Butler and insider Tom Pelissero, picked teams like the Rams, Packers, and Colts ahead of the Patriots as possible destinations for Beckham.
Brandt noted the Patriots' aggressiveness in trading for Randy Moss and signing Chad Johnson in the past, with Mohammed Sanu and Brandin Cooks also serving as examples of receivers New England brought in to maximize their Super Bowl chances (whether the signings worked out or not).
"Are the Patriots going to just sit by and be like, 'You know what, oh well. I guess the Bills own the AFC East. We'll just sit here and hope for a wild card. Oh, I guess the Dolphins just going to come and blow everybody's doors off because 'Good Morning, Football!' talks about them every morning, noon, and night. No! The Patriots are going to arm up. Go get this guy. He would explode. Go give him to Mac Jones. Go take this thing."
Beckham has certainly made his respect for the Patriots known in the past and said he nearly signed with New England after the Cleveland Browns released him last season. He ended up going to the Los Angeles Rams and winning a Super Bowl, though he tore his ACL in the championship game.
Of course, that was then.
The receiver is still recovering from his injury and would certainly miss the start of the regular season if not the entire 2022 campaign. That should reduce his price tag from what it was, but the Patriots have been especially tight with their purse strings this off-season and will have to create the cap space needed to sign Beckham.
On top of that, the receiver room, while not spectacular, is quite deep this year, with the team's top four wideouts (DeVante Parker, Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, and Jakobi Meyers) fairly locked in at this point.
Also, it takes two to tango, and the Patriots, who will be in for a dogfight in the AFC East, can't offer Beckham as clear a path to another Super Bowl as the Packers or Rams and probably can't promise as significant a role as he could have with the Colts.
Plus, as good as Mac Jones was as a rookie last year, he's not Tom Brady. It feels more likely Beckham would opt to play with a more proven veteran quarterback at this point in his career, and Jones isn't that -- yet.
So as fun as it might be to imagine the Patriots nabbing the former Pro Bowl receiver, the odds of that happening seem even longer now than they were a year ago.
