The New England Patriots bounced back during the 2021 season after a rough 2020. A big reason for the turnaround was the improved quarterback play. In 2020, the team got bottom-of-the-barrel production from Cam Newton, Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer. In 2021, they seemingly landed their new franchise quarterback in Mac Jones.
New England selected Jones with the No. 15 overall pick out of Alabama. He performed well enough during the offseason to earn the starting job and had an excellent rookie season. While he operated as a high-end game manager, Jones had a good grasp of the offense and made great reads.
In Year 2, it will be time to remove the training wheels and give Jones a little more responsibility. As a rookie, he had only two games he reached the 300-yard plateau and two games in which he threw three touchdowns.
Part of that could also be the supporting cast that was around him. New England lacked a true No. 1, go-to receiver in 2021. They will look to address that need in 2022. Here are three potential targets for the Patriots to add more weapons around Jones.
If the Patriots go the trade route to address their need at wide receiver, Brandin Cooks could be atop their wish list. Cooks is on the Houston Texans and has not requested a trade, but seeing how some things have unfolded recently, he could change his mind and look for a trade.
Cooks has experience playing in New England so it wouldn’t be a huge adjustment for him to assimilate himself to how the Patriots do things. While he is looked at as a deep threat only by some people, Cooks is a well-rounded receiver that has gotten the job done at every stop in his career.
Cooks has surpassed the 1,000-yard plateau six times in his career, including 2017 with the Patriots. A reunion five years later would be good for both sides and a major positive for Mac Jones individually.
2. Amari Cooper
There has been chatter that the Dallas Cowboys are going to be moving on from Amari Cooper this offseason to save some money. They are well over the salary cap and Cooper could be a cap casualty as a result.
If the Cowboys waive Cooper, the Patriots should be aggressively pursuing him. He is a true No. 1 wide receiver and would slot in atop the depth chart. If New England doesn’t want to compete with other teams for him, offering a late-round pick may be enough to get him out of Dallas, who would likely be happy getting any compensation in return for him.
Cooper has gone over the 1,000-yard mark five times in seven seasons. 2021 was an underwhelming one for his standards with only 865 yards, but he caught a career-high eight touchdowns.
The 2021 season couldn’t have gone much more poorly for Allen Robinson. After getting franchise tagged last offseason, he had the worst season of his career outside of 2017 when he appeared in only one game before getting injured.
He caught only 38 passes for 410 yards and one touchdown. It is a terrible time for him to be hitting free agency, but Robinson should still field some strong offers as his track record speaks for itself.
Putting up 1,000-yard seasons with Blake Bortles, Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles being the main quarterbacks is an accomplishment in itself. We haven’t truly seen what Robinson can do with even average quarterback play, so there is some belief that he can reach another level.
Adding a player of Robinson’s caliber to the Patriots’ offense would help Mac Jones take that next step in his development and open things up for the other players to produce as he is garnering the attention of the opposing defense.
