Patriots Off-Season News

[Donoghus]

I think our team is going to be up and coming.  The defense should be very solid, one of the best in the league, and is still fairly young.  The other end of the extreme is that our OL looks pretty bad right now, big problem, but fixable, maybe not this season, but fixable in the near term.

As to the skill positions, we have a group of really promising young receivers who still need to prove themselves or come of age, but there is some real talent there:

Douglas (23)
Thornton (24)
Polk (23)
Baker (22)
Boutte (22)

It will be interesting to see how this group develops.  Not all will develop but some will.  We could have a 10 year run out of this group.

I?m hoping one of them can at least turn out to be a Jakoby Myers level talent. None of them really stood out in preseason, though.

I've said it before but I think Polk is the real deal.

[Vermont Green]

I think our team is going to be up and coming.  The defense should be very solid, one of the best in the league, and is still fairly young.  The other end of the extreme is that our OL looks pretty bad right now, big problem, but fixable, maybe not this season, but fixable in the near term.

As to the skill positions, we have a group of really promising young receivers who still need to prove themselves or come of age, but there is some real talent there:

Douglas (23)
Thornton (24)
Polk (23)
Baker (22)
Boutte (22)

It will be interesting to see how this group develops.  Not all will develop but some will.  We could have a 10 year run out of this group.

I?m hoping one of them can at least turn out to be a Jakoby Myers level talent. None of them really stood out in preseason, though.

Jakobi Meyers had 26 catches in 15 games in his rookie season.  DeMario Douglas had 49 catches in 14 games in his rookie season.  So one of the group is already trending ahead of Meyers.  That is an interesting comp though for these guys.  If you accept that Douglas is already ahead of Jakobi, and then hope that maybe two of the remaining 4 can develop into that level of receiver or better, that ends up being a pretty good group.

I see Boutte and Thornton as oozing with raw talent.  They have not been able to translate that raw talent yet, but I think Boutte will figure it out.  And then maybe one of the rookies develops.  Of course they all could end up more N'Keal Harry and less Jakobi Meyers, but I am more optimistic than that.

[Phantom255x]

I look at Douglas as the discount version of Tyreek Hill (which is still very, very excellent), and I'm very high on Polk as a "go-to" receiver. Sure he's not gonna be an elite WR who flashes but I expect him to be a crafty "move the chains, get open" guy which is still great. That could be a nice WR2. He made some nice plays in the preseason and was open for a handful of them in some crucial spots.

If at least 1 of Baker/Boutte can emerge as well to go along with Henry, Hooper and Bourne I think our receiving group including TEs is actually really good. I'm just not sold on Thornton and he gets hurt often. Osborn could be a solid 3rd or 4th guy along with Bourne but it's hard to tell.

The O-Line is the biggest issue obviously. If they had an actual LT and Onwenu was at RT then I'd actually feel so much better about the team. Unfortunately they don't and Sow is probably done for the year too. They really have 3 holes in the O-Line and could be really screwed if any or both of Onwenu/Andrews goes down to injury.

[Goldstar88]

I think our team is going to be up and coming.  The defense should be very solid, one of the best in the league, and is still fairly young.  The other end of the extreme is that our OL looks pretty bad right now, big problem, but fixable, maybe not this season, but fixable in the near term.

As to the skill positions, we have a group of really promising young receivers who still need to prove themselves or come of age, but there is some real talent there:

Douglas (23)
Thornton (24)
Polk (23)
Baker (22)
Boutte (22)

It will be interesting to see how this group develops.  Not all will develop but some will.  We could have a 10 year run out of this group.

I?m hoping one of them can at least turn out to be a Jakoby Myers level talent. None of them really stood out in preseason, though.

I've said it before but I think Polk is the real deal.

I hope so, since MHJ will likely be a top WR in the league and the Pats could have had him.