Who Will be the Best Patriots Wide Receiver

Intro New England in my opinion arguably the worst wide receiver room uh in the NFL they've got two rookies that are going to be asked to carry a very big load mat in Jen pulk uh and my favorite sleeper wide receiver in uh in in Javon Baker this guy has those attributes um that I saw when I when I saw Aman Ross St Brown play at USC they're going to have to have one of these rookies way out kick expectations look at the release there's your separation stutter and go gets by clean that is unbeliev may be the greatest catch I've ever seen in New England we go from the we go Worst Room in the NFL? from the penthouse to the ouse here New England in my opinion arguably the worst wide receiver room uh in the NFL Kendrick Bourne's health is an unknown right now they're saying he's healthy but who knows uh and even when healthy Kendrick Bourne is I is he is he a top 25 receiver in this league I don't know you know they've got two rookies that are going to be asked to carry a very big load mat in Jaylen pulk uh and my favorite sleeper wide receiver in uh in in Javon Baker but just other than Baker Matt it is a complete Dar of EX receivers in New England and I just don't know how you get around that in in the modern NFL oh yeah I I it's interesting I think they're going to have to have one of the I just they're going to have to have one of these rookies way out kick expectations um um and I think pulk is probably the guy that they're going to be betting on to do it obviously he was the the earliest drafted player between him and Javon Baker so he should be considered the favorite but yeah I mean even like Kendrick Bourne as your ex- receiver you know he can do it because he can beat man coverage um I charted a few of his games from last season while he was playing like kind of in the middle of the year and and I think from a man coverage perspective he was actually having a pretty decent year of course he's coming off an ACL right they even talked like in mini camp about you know uh think gerod Mayo said hey it's really good opportunity for these young guys to be out here and and kind of with without without a guy like Kendrick Bourne around which to me makes it seem like they think Kendrick Bourne is just an established week one starter probably their quote best receiver right now and like we'll see about that um I think Bourne is a good player but again he's coming off an injury he's getting a little older and and and I don't know that we' we could well we definitely can't sit here and say like we've ever seen a great seas seen a nice season from Kendrick Bourne I think in 21 right his first year with the Patriots now when you go like down the depth chart a little bit I do I do Pop Douglas like pop Douglas as kind of like you know we we again we broke him down last week I I said he kind of has like a a weird profile kind of like a hard to decipher sort of player because he's a man coverage beating slot receiver you typically don't see a lot of those guys right typically your slot receiver is going to be more of your Zone beater um but hey it's still again it's it's nice to see a year one player show up with like a 69% success rate versus Man coverage that's still like a good overall indicator um and just like wow that was a nice successful season for a freaking six round pick out of Liberty all right so I think that's a nice showing for him I think he could play right to me p is the big wild card here Ja'Lynn Polk it can pulk establish himself as a day one starter in two receiver sets as that flanker um I think he can I really liked Jaylen PK's profile uh when you go back and look at it there's some really good indicators there you know he was right there with his teammate romad dun in terms of the best contested catch receiver in this class really good hands um didn't drop I I don't think he dropped any passes in the games that I charted for him 81st percentile success rate versus Zone coverage 83.5% again that was top three in the class among the receivers that I sampled now he definitely has some weaknesses he's not um an elite press man beater but still 68.1% against man 69.2 against press those are solid numbers you look at the routes that he's really successful on definitely not going to be a a big time vertical threat I think right subpar against coverage against nines I mean on nine routes Corner routes out routes that's not the strength of this game but you look at like dig route success rate post route success rate curl route success rate all above the prospect average that's where I think he is a really interesting player especially if we're thinking about this offense trying to utilize the middle of the field which I think it's hard to know what Alex Vamp Pelt is going to do because we've never seen playing coordinator but I still think that if you just look at where he's been what the type offf that they'll probably implement here especially if they're taking anything from like the Joe flacko run uh with the Cleveland Browns which I think like hey it's weird to say but Drake may as kind of an athletic dude with a cannon eventually just kind of running the old man Joe flacko Cleveland Browns offense there I actually think there's some symmetry there and they did make a lot of money again shooting deep passes over the middle of the field and that's where I think Jaylen pulk lines up really well so I'm actually pretty high on pulk both as a rookie um and just kind of along the line like is he maybe a future Superstar receiver I don't know about that but I think he could be a really good and useful player in the NFL for a long time this is why I Javon Baker look at Javon Baker and this is why I've pegged him as one of my favorite sleepers uh mostly from a utilization standpoint right you talk about um Jaylen pul maybe wasn't the best downfield and I think I agree with you I think he he profiles really well as a flanker guy as a matter of fact I I look at this roster there's just a lot of guys that are either just project wide receivers or flanker slots you know pop Douglas KJ Osborne Juju Smith Schuster I don't know if he'll be on the roster but whatever he might be Jaylen rager for some reason is on the Patriots right now uh I mean and again even when you talk about Kansas City um you know they've got Travis Kelsey Hunter Henry who is going to be an integral part of this offense is 30 years old you know at a position that you know you don't want to be running your offense through a 30-year-old Hunter Henry okay so um I just I see a lot of flanker slot types um and I don't see a lot of X receivers except for my guy Javon Baker who is an absolute dog this guy has those attributes um that I saw when I when I saw Aman Ross St Brown play at USC right this guy's just going to fight for the football in the air he's going to I mean he will just Terrier Jersey off trying to fight for that football that's what I really like um about Javon Baker and then you look at his reception perception profile Matt and again there's just so much to like right exceptional ability deep downfield 61.5% success rate on the nine route which is awesome 87.8% on the curl route again awesome 81% on the slant so not only is he beating you deep he's got some you know middle of the field ability as well uh which is what we look for and again and time we're talking about reception perception I'm always looking for that 7080 breakdown right 70% success rate versus Man 80% success rate versus Zone I get it I get it Big 12 Football list listen I I understand I understand but these are the benchmarks and and and he met those benchmarks okay so so for me um I just think Baker's got a real opportunity you talk about a player that can out KCK their draft stock this guy was taken to the fourth round he's got an absolute chance um and just with with again the dir of EX receivers there in New England Matt I just think he's got a real opportunity to step in day one uh and establish himself as a starting X receiver for New England I'm with you uh we talked about Importance of X Receiver Buffalo at the start of the show and I think I'm generally higher on what the bills have at wide receiver and like the potential of this room maybe more than you are um but like I wish that the bills had a Javon Baker kind of waiting in the wings right um you know because a lot of the same things that we said and look I I like a lot of the players that are on the bills maybe as much or probably more than I do the Patriot the the Patriots options um but like if they had a if the bills had a Javon Baker kind of waiting in the wings is like maybe okay we kick around the mvs stuff at the beginning of the season but let's get this rookie up to speed and like man I think that makes that room look so much more interesting yeah um than a than than the Patriot or than it does right now but with the Patriots like I've said this a lot coming out of the draft I had if you look at my stacked Prospect rankings on on on reception perception on the website um it accounts since the 21 draft class up to 24 I had Baker and Jaylen pulk graded in the same tier um so they and and and they they both were graded in the area that Jaylen pulk went so um look I know that that like you said Baker's not a perfect Prospect profile um you mentioned that he played the Big 12 he also kind of at least in the season ni sampled only played on one side of the field he ran a freaking nine route on 35.6% of his routes um so there's going to need to be some development for Javon Baker at the NFL level that's sort of I Sleeper Alert wonder if he is like the early season understudy to Kendrick Bourne as the ex receiver if that's kind of their plan is to is to get Baker developed up to speed and maybe by the end of his rookie season then we're starting to talk about like a full-time Guy this is really like helped like it's a great call to say that he's a sleeper because he stands out in this receiver room it's sort of one of these things does not look like the other and like I said there's some developmental aspects his game but he lined up as an ex receiver in college mentioned he took 78.2% of his sample snaps outside he was on the line for 87.7% he was an ex receiver Prospect he stands out in this group he showed you an ability to High Point the football he showed you an ability to separate as you outlined some of the success rates there bottom line is 88 percentile success rate verse press for Javon Baker like yeah the competition Big 12 whatever U UCF the offense that's still an impressive note that is still a guy that I think should have been taken ahead of the fourth round they get him in the fourth round it's an excellent complimentary pick to Jaylen pulk uh so yes we're this is ifs and all that stuff when we're doing these division previews we're going to be throwing a lot of ifs and like hey maybe this could happen type of stuff around yeah obviously the implication when you say that is that sure maybe both of these guys just can't play Maybe Javon Baker like doesn't develop and yes the receiver room is a is a disaster but on the positive standpoint if Baker can just turn into like a viable NFL player that gives him an answer to x receiver if Jaylen P can be the player that I think he can be as like a volume hog um I I do think you can utilize him in in similar ways to the Rams utilize pukan nakua last year I'm not saying he's about to have a pukan nakua rookie season but just use him in some of those same ways get him involved in the Dirty Work get him involved in these middle of the field routes that's where basically puka made all of his um big plays as rookie last year and then yeah these other guys like Demario Douglas I think could be a good role player Kendrick Bourne could be a good role player like then you have something if you're the Patriots and and I think that's at least like there's a potential for Hope in this wide receiver room