The Patriots are just one or two players away from a championship. However, surprisingly, offensive players are the greatest needed in New England. The defense, when healthy, is actually very good, assuming they retain Aqib Talib.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to go through the free agent class and profile players who the Patriots could potentially target to bring in and how they could help the team. Today, we start on the offensive side of the ball with an enigma of a wide receiver: Hakeem Nicks. Hakeem Nicks is difficult to figure out. At the age of 23, coming off his second consecutive 1,000 yard receiving season, Nicks was starting to look like one of the best receivers in the game. However, an inability to stay healthy and an inability to hold onto the football have sent Nicks into mediocrity. In 2012, he played on 13 games and put up under 700 yards receiving. In 2013, he had 896 receiving yards and as many touchdowns as the author of this blog. He also was towards the top of the league in dropped passes. While he has struggled lately, we do know there is talent there. Could the combination of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady get it out of him? Nicks is the outside threat that the Patriots have been lacking since Randy Moss and he should not break the bank, since he has not proven to be consistent. The downside of bringing in Nicks is he could hinder the development of Aaron Dobson, who we saw improve as the season went on. If Brady has a more proven target to look for, he may pass up young receivers like Dobson, who may be the future of the Patriots’ offense. That being said, Nicks is still only 26 years old himself. The franchise tag for wide receivers is going to be over $11.5 million and I do not see the Giants spending that type of money for one year on Nicks. If the Patriots could sign Nicks to a contract similar to that of Brandon Lloyd’s $12 million over three years, they should seriously consider it. It might take a little more cash than $12 million, seeing that is what he signed for in 2009 over five years, but he has disappointed in the back end of the contract. If Aaron Dobson continues to develop, they could have two outside threats with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski in the middle of the field and that would put New England’s offense towards the top of the league once again.
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SAMUEL PERICOLOSam is a graduate of Assumption College where he studied History, Marketing, and Political Science and was a Co-Producer on a weekly sports talk television show. Archives
March 2018
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