It appears that the Bengals are not going to attempt to bring back Mohammad Sanu and Marvin Jones could be out the door as well. I would love to see either brought in, we need someone to stretch the field and when LaFell wasn't on his game this year our option to go deep was friggin James White.
Who would we be interested in bringing in for free agent WR's?
Posted Feb 19, 2016, 2:30 PM UTC
I am actually very interested in the Pats trying to draft Braxton Miller as a WR.
We know that WR's continue to struggle when moved into New England's program and it's likely because the WR needs to read the defense and make the same read as Brady. Given Miller's experience reading defenses as a college QB, I believe he could fit in quite well to the Patriots system.
For the same reasons, I'd love to see them draft Keenan Reynolds from Navy.
I will give you some other draft names. Pharoh Cooper [SC], D.J. Foster [AZ St.] RB/WR, Tajaé Sharpe, [UMass], and Sterling Shepard [OK].
Cooper and Shepard could be early day-2. Foster and Sharpe should be 3rd or 4th rounders.
My dream scenario is Charone Peake in a late round
That would be best since its the cheapest option but I have no idea who Miller is, Im assuming he converted to WR from QB after a couple of years?
Yeah. An athletic freak who has developed into a wr faster than anyone thought possible.
In half a season he got much better as a WR than he ever was a QB.
The trick play options when you have 3 QBs on the field...
I'll look into him thanks!
I wouldn't mind either if them. I like Sanu more because he is very versatile. He can play outside or in the slot. Josh loved to have WRs that can line up all over the field.
I do like WRs who can get more than 0 TDs though
TDs don't tell the whole story with WRs. With weapons like Green and Eifert, Sanu can get lost in the Red Zone. And he was the 3rd WR on the Depth Chart. With Jones coming back from injury and Sanu being so versatile Sanu worked better at the slot than Jones, which in the Bengals system was not a focal point.
Terrible in yards and TDs this year. Terrible with drops and catch rate this year. He isn't better than Lafell but he'll take up at least 2m more in cap this year
A big factor as to why his numbers went down is because, I like said before, his role was reduced as the Bengals don't give a lot of passes to their slot receiver.
This year Sanu had 0 drops.
Lafell's cap hit will be around $3.7 million. Sanu got under $2 million. If you are talking about next year, it is very slim that Sanu will get $6 million next year from anyone. To start, contracts typically back loaded so the first few year are lower. Secondly, his numbers don't warrant that much per year but free agency is a crazy thing with the cap number continually rising.
The first two stats are irrelevant, we would be trying to acquire him for cheap based on those low numbers, hoping he is better than that but was buried behind some serious talent. They have two able RB's, a great TE, a top flight WR, and then two decent WR2's of which he is one. Obviously we cant know he will be better for us, but these are the kind of cheap low risk, high reward chances we can afford to take.
I really like Mohammed Sanu, I think he would be a great fit. I also like Rueben Randle and Percy Harvin too, if he were cheap. Brandon Gibson did well with us in the preseason last year, so we should bring him back.
Harvin might be worth at least bringing in, but he seems to have too many issues to fully trust (personality, injuries)
If anyone could deal with those though, it would be BB. And if Harvin comes cheap, then he could be cut if any of those issues came back.
Sanu is worse than Lafell and more expensive
Agreed.
worse is so difficult to define when comparing wr's across two systems, with diff usage rates, different qb's, different offensive philosophies even... I don't understand where you get off just outright claiming he is worse... I like lafell a lot, and hope he is given a chance here again, but to say sanu is worse is just... you sound really bias.
First of all it's biased, not bias. I don't know what I'm biased for either. Lafell of the Panthers or Patriots systems never had as shitty a year as Sanu this year. Lafell has drop problems, but he's never led the league like Sanu. Sanu is young with an outlier year of 800 yards (when he was basically their only receiver), so he's gonna be expensive. We could get much better value elsewhere
Learn yourself some words man, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias
otherwise we just disagree on comparing people like apples to apples
I wouldn't mind seeing Anquan Boldin in a Pats jersey. He's been productive and popular everywhere he's been. He is also very experienced. I'm not that worried about his age as he still has something in the tank.
I think that we've got slow over the middle covered already. He is still effective though. You're right there.
Travis Benjamin or Marvin Jones.
The Giants' Reuben Randle is an interesting prospect. He was more consistent this season, has good size, speed, and is an alright route runner. I'd say his ceiling is high, but he struggled with catching consistently until this season, his routes looked sharper in 2015 however and he was really coming on in the second half of the season. He's also a great redzone threat at 6' 4 and knows how to use his size.
On the more expensive side of things is the Browns' Travis Benjamin. Personally I love this guy, he's got blazing straight line speed and quick feet to work in the slot and get YAC. His hands looked good this season, catching all manner of throws from the Browns' QB carousel. He looked like the best WR on the field for them for more than a few games this season. His routes don't seem to be as precise as I'd like and he's so fast that I think he rounds off corners and angles here and there on more complex routes - a problem that will not be tolerated in New England. However I think we can remedy this, if LaFell can pick up our route trees then I think anyone can. This guy is a good outside receiver with the ability to still kill it in the slot. Good agility, quickness. His hands are ok but Browns QBs aren't doing him any favors in that department. Teams have recognized this kid's talent, and I don't think he'll be cheap comparatively speaking. He's young and just coming into his own, he could be worth it.
Is Benjamin a free agent? Damn that's worth talking to his agent at least, anyone who can stretch the field and work in the slot has the Patriots front office drooling.
Only thing I worry about with Randle is if he has the droppies like he did before this year and LaFell does now. I personally think LaFell will be better once he works this offseason on his fitness. He had some serious rust to shake off so I am giving him the benefit of the doubt
I think he would be the perfect WR for NE, but I am not sure will be too expensive. I think you work out a contract that allows JE year one to be at least equal in cap hit to T.Benjamin, You also might see this as the DA replacement and look at those cap numbers as some sort of a limit. [Personally I think he needs a prove it year with TB12 before you let the cap gets that high.] Only 20 WR have avg salaries of more than 7M. Decker is 7.2M, D.Jackson is 8M. A.Brown is 8.3M. V.Cruz is 8.6M.
These are avg/year numbers not cap numbers per se. If you sign him with moderate bonus, small year one base, then larger roster bonus year 2 and 3, I think a deal could be reached.
I love the idea of Benjamin and Forte being signed. Now I see no way to do that cap wise, but if Forte meant what he said about being with a winner, he might be in the 4M range too.
Not to nit pick, I appreciate your input, but why do you say that about LaFell? As if he is some sort of known moron. The guy has iffy hands, but he isn't proven to be stupid. Furthermore, plenty of other wr's have come in and been unable or unwilling to learn our system, so your point is thoroughly debunked. I just don't get where it comes from, reading it suggests that maybe you don't know the Pats history that well. Travis Benjamin is almost exactly the kind of mistake pick we are prone to making at WR, in love with what he could be, but not able to accept what he is. The guy isn't brand new, theres a chance it works out, but id personally rather invest in more refined and polished wr's if we are picking from players already in the NFL.
I'm glad someone else performed a modicum of analysis on him, please tell me as specifically as you can the problems you foresee with Travis Benjamin as a potential part of the Patriots offense.