I mean they have perhaps the worst WR and TE collective group in the sport, and they are the most expensive such group in the sport. That is a lot of money for a terrible pass catching unit.
Really? Is this factual? That sounds crazy to me.
In terms of worst collective group, don't overlook my Bears. It's going to be ugly in Chicago this year. Mooney is okay. The rest of the passing attack is God-awful, and N'Keal Harry is already severely injured.
Yes by far. They have the 3rd largest cap hit at WR at just under 39 million (the Giants and Chargers are between 41 and 42). That is around 18.5% of the cap. But at TE, the Patriots have the largest cap hit at just under 32 million (which is over 15% of the cap). The Dolphins are 2nd at 19.5 million. In fact, the Patriots have spent more on their TE's this year than all but 4 teams spent on their WR's (the Jags are 4th in WR spending). The 5 TE's on the Patriots roster cost more than the 14 WR's on Tampa's roster (which includes Evans, Godwin, Gage) by about 80k.
So no question they are BY FAR the most expensive collective units.
Now how bad they are is certainly more arguable, which is why I said arguably. pro football focus, for example, has the Patriots WR's ranked 20th, though that presupposes that DaVante Parker actually stays healthy. And Parker is probably the worst lead receiver in the sport (which is the real issue with the group). I couldn't find PFF's TE rankings, but I suspect they are probably in the same general range as Hunter Henry is a quality TE, at least when healthy.
Ok. Saying that they are a bad value is different than saying that they are perhaps the worst receiving unit. They are an average (or below average if you want) receiving unit paid as if they were a top unit. I agree, that's an issue.
Two things: 1) recent signings (Agholor, Bourne, Hunter and Smith) will generally make more than previous signings. 2) Bill generally doesn't pay players at the top of the market, so last year's Free Agency isn't indicative of Bill's moves as a whole over 20 years. It is the exception.
I think the fact that DeVante Parker is their best WR is a real problem and absolutely puts them in the mix as the worst receiving group in the NFL. I mean Parker, Agholor, Bourne, Meyers, Thornton, Wilkerson are bad. Clearly they don't have a #1 WR and frankly, I'm not even sure if they have a #2. Henry is a quality TE and Smith has obvious talent, which may be the only saving grace from the pass catchers and is why they had to be ranked at 20 (I looked more closely and it is a combined WR and TE ranking).
That said, basically every team behind them has a much better top option. The Browns were ranked 24th, as an example, and they have an excellent WR in Amari Cooper and a quality TE in David Njoku. Donovan Peoples-Jones might be better than anyone on the Patriots. The Patriots do have a lot of 3rd option type WR's. More than most teams, which may give them a boost, but without a top tier target, the whole unit suffers. The Patriots needed to get a legit #1 option. Even if that guy is a TE, it would have helped immensely (a team like the Ravens for example has one of the best TE's in the game, which helps make up for a weaker WR group).
So which WR's on the Ravens, Bears, Titans, Packers, Lions, Jags are better than Davante Parker?
Since it is combined units,
Ravens - Mark Andrews is clearly better than Devante Parker. Not even debatable. I'd take Bateman over him as well, who as a rookie that was injured to start the year still ended up with more receptions and yards than Parker (and when he was finally healthy was on the backup QB). Bateman should get a lot better in his 2nd year.
Bears - Mooney as a 2nd year guy last year had 81 catches for 1055 yards. Parker has never had that many catches in his career, though did eclipse the yards the ONLY season in his career he played every game. And Mooney did that with 3 different QB's throwing him the ball during the year (Dalton, Fields, and Foles). Rest of the Bears unit is terrible though.
Titans - Robert Woods is better than Parker, you know if you care about things like receptions, yards, games played, etc. Austin Hooper is arguably better, though as a TE is harder to truly gauge since they have to block a lot more.
Packers - Sammy Watkins is better than Parker. Both can't stay healthy. Lazard is hard to say, but he did catch 8 TD's last year. Tonyan is hard to say since he got hurt and played less than half the season last year, but per game was comparable to Parker.
Lions - I'd take Amon-Ra St. Brown over Parker every single time. wouldn't give it a second thought. 90 catches as a rookie. Chark, his last healthy season, had a season as good as any season in Parker's career. Chark is more injured than Parker though. And they obviously have Williams on the roster. Hard to predict when he will play and what he will look like, but I suspect there isn't a team in the league that wouldn't trade Parker for Williams.
Jaguars - They obviously overpaid for Christian Kirk, but he is better and healthier than Parker. 77 for 982 and 5 TD's last year. Parker has never hit those catches and only hit the yards and TD's once 4 seasons ago. Marvin Jones has better career bests than Parker in basically every category and is coming off of back to back seasons of over 70 catches. Evan Engram is an excellent TE.
Parker, even when he is healthy, is mediocre. And he is rarely healthy and he is clearly New England's best pass catcher. That is a real problem. I'm not even sure how that is a question.