Bill Belichick, New England Patriots
With each passing day, the trade-or-release Nelson Agholor bandwagon seems to grow.
The New England Patriots’ struggling wide receiver has nosedived since he had a breakout performance in the Week 2 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. In that game, Agholor snagged six receptions for 110 yards and an impressive touchdown that saved Mac Jones from an interception.
Since the Week 2 performance, Agholor has had a combined five receptions for 87 yards on seven targets. He had just one target in the Week 5 win over the Detroit Lions, but he bobbled a catchable pass that turned into Bailey Zappe’s only interception of the day. Here is a look at the poor play via Nacion Patriota.
Nelson Agholor sigue provocando entregas de balón aún cuando el pase ya fue bien recibido.
Several Call For the Release or Benching of Nelson Agholor
The trend of down performances has The Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard suggesting New England leave him inactive moving forward, or at least for the Week 6 clash with the Cleveland Browns.
“A lot of bad things are happening when he is targeted,” Bedard wrote of Agholor as he designated him for his “four down” section of the postgame review. “Might be time to be inactive.”
In a tweet responding to the legit news from ESPN’s Field Yates that the Patriots had waived wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey, one fan facetiously responded, “you spelled Nelson Agholor wrong,” meaning the Patriots released the wrong veteran receiver.
There are many others throughout the Twitterverse with a similar tone. There have been rumors of a potential Agholor trade for months, but nothing has happened as of yet.
The Trouble With Trying to Trade Nelson Agholor
One issue with attempting to trade Agholor is his salary. He is in the final season of a two-year, $22 million deal. He is carrying an imposing $14.8 million cap hit in 2022, which is likely creating some pause from any team that might be interested.
Agholor currently isn’t playing anywhere close to the level of a player worth his cap hit, but the Patriots would still be on the hook for $10 million if they released him. That’s a lot to pay a guy to go away. However, it could potentially help facilitate a signing of what the Patriots would hope to be a more effective playmaker at the position.
Recent reports suggest the Patriots could still be in the mix to sign Odell Beckham Jr.
Beckham is coming off a torn ACL suffered in the Super Bowl while he was playing with the Rams, but there was reportedly a mutual interest in a signing last season, and the Patriots did their homework on the former Pro Bowler this spring.
Could the Patriots Replace Agholor With Odell Beckham Jr?
The time might not have been right to sign Beckham this offseason, but the Patriots could see the potential in bringing him soon, considering they can have a better idea of how recovered he is from his injury.
Unfortunately for the Patriots–if they’re interested–Beckham may be interested in signing with a contender. At this point, the 2-3 Patriots and their iffy quarterback situation probably aren’t all that attractive to Beckham. Mac Jones is hurt, though recent reports suggest he could return on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. While playing, he struggled with 2 TD passes and five interceptions in three games. Quite frankly, he could have at least two more picks were it not for the aforementioned effort from Agholor and some drops by opposing defenses.
Bailey Zappe has been a nice story. However, even if he starts again against the Browns, plays well, and New England wins, a veteran like Beckham isn’t likely to catch a case of Zappe fever in such a way that entices him to choose New England over a potential return to the Los Angeles Rams.
As it is, Beckham is still likely a pipedream for the Patriots, but it does seem time for New England to make some sort of move to remedy the Agholor problem.