New England Patriots: Top 3 players to add in free agency
Golden Tate
Ahhh, Golden Tate. The one player in free agency it seems every football fan in the greater Northeast is clamoring for.
The interest is decidedly mutual – Tate himself spoke openly and glowingly of the Patriots as a franchise, going so far as to say he’d “love” to join the team this offseason. Rumors and speculation surrounding a marriage between Tate and New England date back much, much further than this year or even last year, but it’s always seemed to be more a matter of finding the right timing than finding the right fit.
Because for all intents and purposes, Tate seems like a perfect fit. A trusted, polished route-runner with slick separation skills and soft hands, the Notre Dame product looks like the prototypical Patriots wide receiver. He’s not a deep threat or a sideline burner, but he knows how to get open and he knows how to catch the ball – and that’s all that Tom Brady really wants from his receivers at this point in his career, anyway.
Other, younger names in the free agent wide receiver pool have already found new homes elsewhere; most notably, Adam Humphries is now with the Tennessee Titans and Cole Beasley is now with the Buffalo Bills. Those two players, along with Tate, were the wideouts most frequently linked to the Patriots this offseason.
Cordarrelle Patterson is also now a Chicago Bear. Phillip Dorsett and Chris Hogan are both still on the open market as unrestricted free agents, making their New England return anything but assured. The fact remains that whatever happens with Dorsett and Hogan, the Patriots’ pass-catching corps is going to look drastically different than what it looked like in 2018.
That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The receiver group last year wasn’t exactly spectacular – only Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon ever really established themselves as exciting, consistent weapons for the offense, and Gordon is of course suspended indefinitely while he receives medical treatment for substance abuse.
Next. What's the status of all the Patriots' internal free agents?. dark
Essentially, the only given in 2019 at wide receiver is Edelman. No matter what the Patriots try to do creatively with their stable of multi-dimensional running backs, they need to find help at receiver – especially if Gronkowski retires.
Signing Tate just seems like a no-brainer.