Will the Patriots ever have an elite wide receiver?

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With the Patriots missing out on Brandon Aiyuk, when will the Patriots finally have an elite wide receiver?

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00:00Is that a luxury or a necessity for these Patriots?

00:03It is more luxury than necessity, and most people don't want to hear it because the idea of

00:08attracting a alpha dog, a wide receiver, one legitimate playmaking talent to give the Patriots

00:15their second blue chipper, since according to the ESPN anonymous polling of GM's executive

00:20scouts and coaches, the Pats only had one top 10 player at their position on the current roster,

00:24that being the eighth overall best safety in Kyle Duggar. I get why people would want to

00:30see somebody like Brandon Ayuk, who some could argue is just now scratching the surface of his

00:35pro potential as a pro bowler. Only 26 years old.

00:38Only 26 years old, coming off his best career. Some may also argue that he has benefited

00:43from playing around the likes of Deebo, Juwan Jennings, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey

00:47on a loaded offense with a genius play caller in Kyle Shanahan. I think he'll flourish wherever

00:52he goes, but to what extent, at what cost and what end here, do you want to max out your cap,

00:57finally finish pissing off Matthew Judon to the point where you know he's out the door and gone,

01:02lose one of your best locker room guys and somebody else who can be a net positive on

01:07the team in Kendrick Bourne, who seems to be recovering quite nicely from the torn ACL last

01:12year in Miami. I just, if the Patriots were, if this was year two of Drake May, the same way

01:17Steph Diggs came along in year two for Josh Allen, I would say it's more important, but

01:24Jacoby Brissett to Brandon Ayuk for 32, $33 million a year, paying what Tom Curran called

01:30the suck tax, having to go over and above and beyond and marrying yourself to this guy.

01:36I'm kind of more with Ross Tucker. You may have drafted a couple of studs in the process this

01:40past year as Elliot Wolf looked to weaponize the offense. Give this room a chance to take

01:44on its own identity. Let Drake make established chemistry and connection with this guy,

01:49these guys, before you say, no, here's your new girlfriend. Here's your new best friend in the

01:53world. Let them just come together. This is a development year. It's not even a bridge year

01:58yet. It is a total like wash Mulligan breakfast ball of a year. Give them time to do it. So it

02:04would have been nice. Yes. Luxury over necessity. Okay. So you're going with luxury. I just want to

02:08set the table here. Some of the background, Mike it's Mayako from the Bay area, NBC sports Bay

02:15area. So he's the one who had the very first details on this. And he's the one who had

02:21this update. They were the Patriots were serious contenders for a while. They were prepared to

02:26offer the largest deal of teams who pursued IU two sources told NBA sports Bay area that New

02:33England's proposal topped $30 million a year. So what you were just referencing there,

02:38um, another source confirmed that, uh, former 49 years wide receiver, Kendrick

02:43Bourne would have been part of that trade deal. Um, ESPN is Mike Reese. He offered just a little

02:48bit of opinion, Mike Reese. He doesn't tread into the opinion column very often, but when this,

02:54uh, report came out, he said aggressive pursuit of Brandon. I uke reflected Patriots desire to

03:00add game breaker to offense, but if backing out means some of those resources could be redirected

03:06to offensive tackle, offensive line, it might serve them better in the end. So we're going to

03:11catch up on, is he going to go to the Steelers? Brandon, I uke, is he going to stay with the 40

03:15Niners? I was thinking about this a lot because even when this first came out yesterday, we got

03:21tons of texts on the text line, three, seven, nine, three, seven. Oh, you can't, you can't get

03:26a new paint job for your car before you get an engine and just lipstick on a pig and I get that.

03:34But I tend to think even if it's, it seems like a luxury, it's a little bit more of a necessity.

03:39And here's why when push comes to shove, literally I have for the last two years been asking for a

03:46tackle for this team and you still don't have a top line tackle now, like that's a necessity.

03:53That is a pure necessity that you go out there and you get a, a really talented left tackle,

03:58right tackle. You need those positions. It also doesn't mean that having a playmaker isn't also

04:05a necessity. Like the truth is you have a couple of necessities and just because one is extremely

04:11high paid and extremely high profile, it might be a pain in the rear end. Doesn't mean that it's

04:15also a necessity that your, that your team isn't lacking. So I know some people will look at it and

04:22say, well, you got to get the offensive line firmed up before you go out and get a receiver,

04:26or you got to get this handled, but you got to figure out if Drake May is the guy before you go

04:30into year two and then you go get a receiver. But look at what you just went through with Calvin

04:35Ridley. Look at what you went through with DeAndre Hopkins the year before, and look at the stats

04:40that you've gotten from your top receivers over the past five seasons. One hasn't topped out over

04:441000 receiving yards since 2019. I'm saying if you get a crack at a talented receiver, you grab

04:53it anytime you can, because whether or not you have a tackle in place or whether or not you know

04:58exactly who your quarterback is at this point, you have been gone way too long without a top

05:05end receiver. And you don't have a single player in the NFL top 100. You are in dire need of elite

05:11talent. So the necessity for this team is elite talent, just to put you on par with other teams

05:17in the league. So you're not 32 out of 32 in these preseason rankings. And once the season starts,

05:23I just don't think there's somebody in the Twitch chat and hello, twitchers, it's twitch.tv slash

05:27boston we happy to have you for as long as you can hang with us. Nothing like watching radio

05:31on a computer. I agree with you to a certain extent. It would be great to have him Yes,

05:38getting some some top end talent would be awesome. However, is this team in any sort of position to

05:45feature somebody with because with, you know, with great power or great salary comes great

05:49expectations. Do you think he wants to deal with Jacoby Brissett? His you know, what's his top?

05:55What's his top year of now? Maybe he's never thrown to somebody like Ioka and the rest of the

05:59room, which I still think is not 32 out of 32 percent here. Yeah. Like, you know, what if Brandon

06:04Ioka is like, Oh, man, I got all this money. But now I got to catch passes from Brissett and Drake

06:08May who's having trouble understanding the offense. Is the money going to keep him happy? Could that

06:13throw off the chemistry and the development of the wide receiver room, the offense and team at large

06:17under Gerard Mayo, who, if you haven't noticed, already has a lot of spinning plates, burning

06:22embers and juggling chainsaws in the air that he has to deal with. We're changing the philosophy

06:27almost on a daily basis because, quite frankly, he has to taking on the role of head coaches way more

06:32than working for Optum or being an assistant defensive head coach on a football team.

06:37It would be great to have it, but I just can't help but wrap my mind around the idea that this

06:42team, back to what you were saying a moment ago, needs offensive line help so much. Hart and I have

06:47been for a year and a half straight now. We've been doing it since February 2023 and continue to

06:52do so on air on the Six Rings and Football Things podcast. Download it today. Spotify, Apple's

06:57Odyssey, et cetera. We have been begging the Patriots. Please take this offensive line issue

07:03seriously. You have to get a premier left tackle. They decided to Belichick and company ignored

07:08Orlando Brown last year and others this past offseason. They let Tyron Smith. Yes, I know

07:14he's already out at Jets camp. If he plays 11 games, it'll be a lucky and it'll be lucky in a

07:18luxury for the Jets. But just do something more than, well, this right tackle, we think he might

07:22be able to do it. Calvin Anderson, he's healthy. Hey, Caden Wallace, he played right tackle in

07:28college. Maybe he can switch. Just go end the hobo rumble that is trying to figure out who your

07:34tackles are going to be. Get a premier one and start building boring football. That's Alex Van

07:39Pelt football. What did he say, Meggo? There's going to be a running team. Jalen Polk last week

07:42said, uh, you know, coach told us in a meeting, spoiler alert, this is going to be a running team.

07:47How's it going to be a running team? If you have 17 different offensive line, uh, personnel

07:52groupings and transitions this season, like it's going to be a mess. I don't care who you can have.

07:56Randy Moss and Jerry Rice, and you can have freaking Lynn Swan out there. It's not going

08:00to matter if the quarterback is folded like a VFW poker table every week because the line sucks.

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