Well-known NFL analyst Damien Woody is among those who believe the New England Patriots have not done nearly enough since the start of free agency last week.
The Patriots essentially swapped Jakobi Meyers and Jonnu Smith for Juju Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki over the last week and added a complement to Rhamondre Stevenson with veteran running back James Robinson. It’s fair to argue all three of those moves serve as upgrades at the position, but certainly are not division-defining moves like others in the AFC East are making.
And Woody took the Patriots to task on Tuesday morning when he was asked on ESPN’s “Get Up” what team should try to sign free agent Odell Beckham Jr.
“How about the damn New England Patriots? Hello! Have we heard anything from the Patriots?” Woody said. “The Patriots are floating on just being irrelevant. No one is talking about the Patriots.
“Look in the division, everybody is loading up making moves. You got the Jets with Aaron Rodgers, you see what Miami is doing, you got the Buffalo Bills still king of the division. And here are the New England Patriots making chump-change moves out here. Y’all need to do something — I’ve been talking about trading for (DeAndre Hopkins), OBJ (Beckham), hell, you need make something because right now what you’re trotting out there on the field ain’t going to be good enough. Not with the players going on in the AFC East right now. They need to make a move and they needed to make it yesterday.”
Adding a receiver like Beckham or Hopkins would go a long way in building the skill group, either bringing a WR1 option to an offense which lacks it. The Patriots have been connected to both wideouts dating back weeks and trade talks around the league reportedly are “ramping up” for Hopkins. It’s unclear if the Patriots are among the interested teams in the current Arizona Cardinals pass-catcher.
If it were up to Woody, though, it’s pretty clear New England would be making the necessary moves to bring one of them to One Patriot Place.
