All is not lost in New England after the Patriots lost out to Mike Vrabel’s Titans in pursuit of former All-Pro free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins over the weekend.
Clearly Bill Belichick simply didn’t value signing Hopkins, because Robert Kraft’s team easily could have matched the reported two-year deal he landed in Tennessee that tops out at $33 million and includes him having to play at a pretty elite level to reach that compensation package.
A Patriots team that paid Nelson Agholor more than $10 million last year to do next to nothing and has Jonnu Smith on the salary cap for nearly $13 million this year to play in Atlanta simply wasn’t willing to pay up to secure an aging Hall of Fame-caliber talent who would immediately have slotted in atop the wide receiver depth chart.
It is what it is. With training camp barely more than a week away in Foxborough, it’s more than time to move on. While fans and media alike thought Hopkins would be a perfect addition for the Patriots – and don’t let them tell you otherwise now that he took his aging talents to Tennessee – he’s not walking through the Gillette Stadium door.
So where does that leave third-year QB Mac Jones, newly-returned New England offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and the rest of the Patriots passing attack?
To be clear, the New England passing game still very much has the potential to play at a level that’s competitive or maybe even above that. But, it’s indeed built around the upside potential of a cast of mostly-veteran characters who have proven themselves incapable of putting up high-end production with consistency.
Again, it is what it is.
JuJu Smith-Schuster has the potential to catch 100 balls, top 1,400 yards and average more than 12 yards per reception, as he done in his NFL career. Of course he also has the potential to miss time to injury, fail to even reach 9 yards per catch and disappoint, as he’s done in multiple seasons in his career.
How about DeVante Parker? Well, he has the potential to be a 1,200-yard target, as he was for the Dolphins in 2019. Of course he also has the potential to miss time to injury, as he done most of his career, and be a 20- or 30-catch afterthought.
Then there’s Kendrick Bourne. He certainly has the potential to make plays and be a versatile piece to move around the formation.
He might just set new career highs in receptions, yards and touchdowns, as he did in his first fall in Foxborough in 2021. Or he might fail to start more than five games and put up little more than a few hundred yards over the course of the season as a bit player, as has been the case more often than not over the first six years of his pro career.
No one might epitomize potential more than second-year option Tyquan Thornton. He was the fastest player at the Combine two winters ago. He’s a second-round pick in a league where such receivers often outplay their draft position. He’s opened eyes on the Patriots practice field over the last year-plus as one might expect. Yet, he’s done essentially nothing of note on an NFL field.
Let us not forget the tight ends. Hunter Henry has the second-highest salary cap number on the team. He was paid like an elite talent and maybe he has potential for more production. But he’s also never caught more than 60 passes or had more than 631 yards receiving. Red zone potential for a guy who had nine touchdowns with Jones in 2021? Sure. Or he could have four or fewer touchdowns, as he has in four of his seven NFL seasons.
And maybe, just maybe, Mike Gesicki is the next big thing as an athletic move tight end. Maybe the coach who recruited him to Penn State and oversaw huge tight end production in his first tour in New England can maximize the guy whose hype these days is well beyond past performances of his five-year career in Miami.
DHop would have looked good in a Patriots uniform. If we’re being honest, we can all agree on that. He would have brought proven production to the lineup and made everyone else’s job easier, whether it be his QB or his fellow pass catchers.
Now, with that passing game pipe dream in Tennessee, New England is left with basically nothing but potential at the wide receiver position.
There’s the optimistic potential to surprise people if various veterans recreate their most productive NFL output and maximize their talents.
Or, the potential to once again fail to measure up in an NFL where it seems just about every team has elite go-to options in the passing game, which is just not the case right now in New England.