Tag: Kendrick Bourne

Ranking 15 best pending free agent wide receivers in 2024

Who are the 15 best pending free agent wide receivers in 2024, and could the Patriots be in play for any of them?

It’s no secret that the New England Patriots will be in the market for a serious upgrade at wide receiver in the offseason.

The team likely finishing the season in position to land a top-three pick in the 2024 NFL draft means they’ll be in position to take Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., if they wanted to go down that path.

That decision would likely anger the masses because it could mean another year of Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe under center at quarterback.

The best option for an immediate upgrade for New England at receiver would be addressing the problem in free agency. There are a plethora of playmakers that would improve the Patriots’ dire situation significantly.

The team is expected to have the money to spend to get whoever they want to finally help put the offense over the top. Here are the top-15 wide receivers expected to hit the open market in 2024:

Patriots Wire Podcast: Why did Patriots stand pat at trade deadline?

This week on the Patriots Wire Podcast, we discuss the Patriots standing pat at the trade deadline, who steps up at wide receiver and preview the Patriots-Commanders game on Sunday.

The disappointment from a seemingly lost season continued for the New England Patriots in Week 8 with the team getting trampled at South Beach by the Miami Dolphins.

Those feelings were exacerbated by coach Bill Belichick opting not to sell the team before the trade deadline. Hope for a turnaround season quickly devolved into fans wanting to sell tradeable pieces for future draft picks to rebuild the roster.

But the trade deadline came and went without so much as a whisper from Belichick and the Patriots.

This week on the Patriots Wire Podcast, Ryan O’Leary and I discuss the fallout from Bill Belichick standing pat at the deadline, and we also preview the upcoming Week 9 matchup between the Patriots and Washington Commanders.

There’s some delving into the wide receiver situation as well with Kendrick Bourne out for the season with a torn ACL and DeVante Parker in concussion protocol.

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Did the Patriots make a mistake by not selling at the trade deadline? Who needs to step up the most at receiver? Will the team bounce back on Sunday against the Commanders?

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10 highest-graded players for Patriots offense vs Dolphins, per PFF

PFF’s top-10 offensive players for the Patriots in loss to the Dolphins

It was back to reality for the New England Patriots’ sputtering offense in their Week 8 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

The pass protection up front was iffy at best, the run game never got going, receivers couldn’t get open and quarterback Mac Jones turned the ball over.

Rinse, wash and repeat.

No offensive player outside of tight end Pharaoh Brown was given over a 70.0 grade by Pro Football Focus. It didn’t help matters that two of the team’s top receivers, DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne, both went down with injuries.

Bourne, who led the team in receptions, yards and touchdowns, will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, while Parker is in concussion protocol. Those injuries create even bigger questions for the Patriots moving forward this season.

Let’s take a look at the top-10 highest-graded offensive players for New England, per PFF, in the loss to the Dolphins.

Patriots officially place leading receiver Kendrick Bourne on injured reserve

The Patriots announced WR Kendrick Bourne is being placed on IR.

The New England Patriots officially announced wide receiver Kendrick Bourne has been placed on injured reserve.

On Monday, an MRI revealed Bourne tore his ACL in the Week 8 game against the Miami Dolphins. There was hope that it was just an MCL injury, but it ended up being a worst case scenario for the Patriots.

Bourne currently leads the team with 37 receptions for 406 yards and four touchdowns. After a down year, he had emerged as quarterback Mac Jones’ favorite receiving target.

The timing is tough considering Bourne was playing on an expiring contract with a chance to play himself into a lucrative extension with the Patriots or elsewhere.

Instead, he’ll be shifting focus to rehabbing his injury in hopes of returning to the field as soon as possible. Bourne has made a living off proving people wrong since he arrived in the NFL as an undrafted free agent.

Only a fool would count him out now.

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Patriots Twitter reacts to Kendrick Bourne season-ending injury news

Patriots Twitter reacts to the devastating news that WR Kendrick Bourne is out for the season.

On Monday, it was announced that New England Patriots wide receiver Kendrick Bourne would be out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

This is a big hit to the team’s wide receiver room, and it takes away their most productive playmaker at the position.

Bourne was on his way to having another solid year. He had three catches for 36 yards and a touchdown against the Dolphins on Sunday. He had 37 catches for 406 yards and four touchdowns on the year. Now, the Patriots must look to replace his production in what is an already thin wide receiver room.

Patriots Twitter was saddened by the news, as the injury hits keep coming for New England.

Instant analysis of Patriots WR Kendrick Bourne suffering season-ending injury

What’s the plan for the Patriots after losing Kendrick Bourne for the season?

Nothing has gone right for the New England Patriots this season. So in a way, it was no surprise when the news dropped on Monday that wide receiver Kendrick Bourne would miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.

Such is the Patriots’ luck in 2023.

First and foremost, this flat out stinks for Bourne, who has come a long ways from the days in Matt Patricia’s doghouse. Under offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, we were witnessing a reawakening of the explosive playmaker that emerged in 2021.

As for the team, there really isn’t anyone on the roster capable of replacing the production Bourne gave the Patriots. Demario Douglas has a ton of potential as a future high-volume receiver, but it’s unfair to expect him to emerge as a top playmaker, when he’ll likely be seeing double teams and bracket coverage as a rookie.

Keep in mind, DeVante Parker also went down with a head injury on Sunday, So outside of Douglas, there’s JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Reagor and Kayshon Boutte.

Can quarterback Mac Jones get the offense back on track by making lemons out of the lemonade?

It’s an impossible task that’s being asked of him, all while playing behind a makeshift offensive line that changes faces more often than Pistachio Disguisey.

The Patriots could use the rest of the season to gauge the potential of players like Thornton, Boutte and Reagor. Can one player or multiple players step up and take advantage of the opportunity that has now opened up on offense?

Thornton is the main one to keep an eye on down the stretch. The physical traits of being a bigger and more explosive outside target are clearly there, but he has yet to put things together consistently enough on the field.

He was a healthy scratch ahead of the Week 8 meeting with the Miami Dolphins. This could be his final opportunity to prove he’s worth the second-round draft pick the Patriots used to get him in 2022.

The Patriots could also shift the focus even more towards the running backs and tight ends as pass-catchers in an offense that needs all of the help it can get right now. Regardless of what the team does, it will still be an uphill battle the rest of the way.

Fixing a bad offense without the player personnel to make it work will be the greatest challenge Bill Belichick has ever faced in his coaching career.

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Report: Patriots WR Kendrick Bourne out for season with torn ACL

Kendrick Bourne is reportedly done for the season with a torn ACL.

The New England Patriots were hoping for the best case scenario with Kendrick Bourne, but instead, they got the worst case scenario after the wide receiver underwent an MRI for a knee injury on Monday.

Per the NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, Bourne suffered a torn ACL in the loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, which will keep him sidelined for the rest of the season.

It’s a devastating blow considering this was trending towards a bounce-back year for Bourne, who led the Patriots with 37 receptions and 406 receiving yards.

For the Patriots, it’s another major loss at a position of need. With DeVante Parker also going down with a head injury, the team has been reduced to Demario Douglas, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Reagor and Kayshon Boutte.

Bourne was playing in the final year of his contract. So there’s a chance we’ve seen him in a Patriots uniform for the last time.

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5 big takeaways from Patriots’ 31-17 loss at Miami

Here are 5 big takeaways from Sunday’s Patriots-Dolphins game

A week after their surprising victory against the Buffalo Bills, the New England Patriots traveled south to Miami to take on the Dolphins on Sunday.

While the Patriots were able to get on the board early, they were ultimately unable to contend with Miami’s explosive offense, losing the game 31-17.

New England quarterback Mac Jones had a rough day at the offense, unable to hit the passes when he most needed to and failing to execute in clutch situations. He was held to far below 200 passing yards, a low point after the performance he put on last weekend.

Here are five big takeaways from the game.

Studs and duds in Patriots’ disappointing 31-17 loss to Dolphins

Who were the Patriots’ studs and duds in Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins?

There were no miracles to be had for the New England Patriots in Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins. It was just more disappointment from a team that looked outmatched on the road.

The Patriots are clearly trying and competing every week, but those efforts are thwarted at every turn by one team seemingly always having the better built roster.

The blocking on the makeshift offensive line was once again abysmal, which initiated a snowball effect of a bad run game and lack of real passing opportunities. Mac Jones was a statue standing in the pocket with nowhere to go with the football.

And the defense couldn’t save him.

The unit typically throws on the red cape and keep things more competitive than it probably should be for the Patriots this season, but this time, they ran into an offensive juggernaut they couldn’t topple.

Here are the studs and duds from the game:

Patriots rule out DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne with injuries

The Patriots have ruled out both DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne for Sunday’s game.

Both New England Patriots wide receivers DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne have been ruled out for the remainder of Sunday’s game with injuries.

Parker sustained a head injury after a helmet-to-helmet hit by Miami Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott. The wide receiver has 14 catches for 144 yards on the season. He had one catch for 14 yards in Sunday’s contest.

Meanwhile, Bourne went down with a knee injury. He’s the Patriots’ leading receiver on the season with 34 catches for 370 yards and three touchdowns. Against the Dolphins, he had racked up three catches for 36 yards and one touchdown before the injury.

New England’s wide receiver depth is not a strong point. Losing two players like Parker and Bourne is just another major obstacle to deal with for the team. Hopefully, there are no long-term ramifications from the injuries.

New England has struggled offensively throughout Sunday’s contest, and these injuries won’t help matters.

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