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.