Report: Belichick Was Talked Into the Disastrous Juju Smith-Schuster Signing by 'Front-Office Decision-Makers'

After one season, 29 receptions, 260 yards, one touchdown and a sphincter-clenching $25 million contract, the Juju Smith-Schuster Era in New England was finally given a merciful death. And as with Brandon Aiyuk, Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf have chosen to roll with the products of their last three drafts, plus Kendrick Bourne and Jalen Reagor at wide receiver. A wise decision that I wholeheartedly applaud. 

And as they do, it's important to soul that I admit I fell for the grift when it came to Smith-Schuster. As much as I liked Jakobi Meyers, I believed we'd already seen his ceiling and that Juju's (1,400 yards in 2018, 900 in 2022) was higher. Now that Meyers is coming off his third straight 800-yard season, with a career-high eight touchdowns, it's imperative that I take the L on this one. Painful though it may be:

I'm a firm believer in the adage that it takes a big man to admit when he's wrong. But also that it takes an even bigger man to take the hit when someone else is wrong. Which according to one report, is precisely what happened here:

Boston Herald - "In the lead-up to free agency, the Pats had been split internally on whether to retain Meyers, their leading receiver for three straight seasons. Sources believe front-office decision-makers sold Belichick on Smith-Schuster’s yards after catch ability over what they had in Meyers. That, again, served as a surprise to outsiders, considering the Patriots weren’t connected to Smith-Schuster in 2022 when he had also been a free agent.

“Bill was never a JuJu guy,” one source said."

First of all, to be fair to everyone involved (and they're lucky I'm doing so because I'm not in the mood right now) that yards after catch metric was not the worst argument to make. In 2022, Juju was 7th among all receivers with 5.9 YAC/reception. Meyers was 60th at 3.4, which is pretty much his career average. He's always been more of a reliable, sure-handed, "tough catch in traffic with a guy draped all over him" type of slot receiver, not a guy you're going to get the ball to in space and let him, as the kids say, cook. So putting aside the hindsight we're all benefiting from right now, there was some logic in the argument. 

That said, in what universe was Bill Belichick signing Juju when "Bill was never a Juju guy"? What the hell was going on in the Pats personnel department in the spring of 2023 that led to the most successful GM/coach in history getting talked into someone who he was not a "guy" of? What kind of insane dysfunction was going on when his staffers were empowered to talk the man who built an empire into a player he didn't want like they're selling him a timeshare in Orlando? Was it because he'd had so many swings and misses over the likes of DeVante Parker, Nelson Agholor, Mohamed Sanu, Josh Gordon and a cast of thousands?

More to the point, who are these "front-office decision-makers"? Because as far as we were all led to believe, the only front office decisions were being made by a gruff but lovable Croatian genius. But that question is not a rhetorical one. We need to know who exactly the Hands and Maesters were who sat around the table and sold the King on this strategy. Because presumably they're still there, making front office decisions. And if you'll indulge me switching pop culture references in mid-paragraph, "You need to answer for Santino, Carlo." Because the guy who took the rap for this and all the other bad wideout signings already lost his job. And now we find out his fingerprints aren't on this one. 

And that goes for the medical staff, too. Because now we're looking at almost $10 million in dead cap money for a receiver who was grinding bone-on-bone in his knee. Which you'd think would be easy to detect if you were using a Medieval barber to do your exams. Regardless, the structures are still in place that made this horrific signing. And if we're going to have any confidence the next one won't be just as bad, we need to be assured the people responsible have paid a price. And not just the guy they talked into it.

Then again, I'd just as soon stay out of the wide receiver rental market for a few years. And, as Mayo said, focus on just developing the ones we have. It's been a long time since they've produced a Danny Amendola or a Wes Welker.