If you thought a month into the 2026 season that Patriots fans would have long forgotten about Kayshon Boutte, the wide receiver the team traded for right before the season began, you would be wrong.
Part of that is because of A.J. Brown's injury and the void it left in the offense, along with the slow rise of Romeo Doubs, whose tenure started pretty poorly. On top of it all are the ongoing struggles of the other receivers, who have had issues separating and creating plays so far, which Boutte was always good at.
So, inevitably, Patriots fans are watching what he's doing with the Texans, which hasn't been as impactful as many expected, and Boutte also seems to be keeping an eye on his former team.
At least, that's what his social media activity seems to show.
Kayshon Boutte might dreaming of the greener pastures in New England after slow Texans start
After defying the odds and beating the Bills in Buffalo last Sunday, Drake Maye took to Instagram to celebrate. It was a bounce-back game for the quarterback, who's struggled at the start of the season, and he played like his MVP-caliber self against one of the AFC's strongest teams.
That prompted Boutte to comment on the post, simply responding with a heart emoji, which set off Patriots fans in a big way.
Several took to their own social media pages to share screenshots of the comment and immediately began dreaming of what could have been this season if Boutte were still on the roster. That's even more prominent given that he hasn't had a remarkable start to his Houston tenure just yet, and the Patriots have needed a lot of receiver help so far.
Imma cry bro 💔 pic.twitter.com/yw5mWFJ0mc
— jb (@lockedupjb) October 6, 2026
In four games so far, the receiver has recorded just 9 receptions for 115 yards. Although that isn't necessarily vastly different than what his stat line might have been with the Patriots, given that his career-high receiving yards in a year was 589, he earned a more prominent role in the offense last year, which likely would have made him even more involved this season.
Although Mike Vrabel hinted at the contrary, going as far as saying that they felt they needed to trade Boutte because he likely would have been a healthy scratch given how packed the receiving room was at the start of the year, it's probably fair to assume that wouldn't have actually happened, or if it did, it wouldn't have lasted long.
Boutte became too good for the offense to keep off the field, especially for a player like Efton Chism, who, until this past week, hadn't done much for the offense during the regular season.
With the Texans going into Week 5 at 0-4 and CJ Stroud not incorporating Boutte much into the offensive game plan, it's not a stretch to believe Boutte misses his time with the Patriots.
He might have given mixed signals ahead of being traded, since reports said he requested a trade ahead of this year's draft, but it's not always greener on the other side, which he seems to be learning quickly in Houston.
The Patriots are learning that, too, in Boutte's absence, since Maye could have easily used him the moment AJ Brown went down with an ankle sprain in Week 1.
Instead, we'll all have to dream about what could have been this year and dwell on the fact that the front office felt it was better for everyone involved to trade Boutte to what was considered an AFC contender than to keep a deep receiving corps for the first time in Maye's career.
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