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Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Patriots shouldn't pass up chance to solve glaring issue before NFL draft
The Patriots are a few days away from being on the clock. Not long after the Tennessee Titans kick off the proceedings Thursday night, Mike Vrabel & Co. will make the team's Round 1 selection with the fourth overall pick. Advertisement At the moment, there doesn't seem to be much suspense when it comes to what the Patriots are going to do. They've boxed themselves into a bit of a corner. They have little choice but to take the best left tackle available. And that would be LSU's Will Campbell, short arms and all. Thanks to being unable to solve the issue in free agency, Drake Maye's blindside protection is the top priority heading into the draft. It remains a gigantic need. But what if it wasn't? What if the Patriots took care of that gaping hole at left tackle ahead of Thursday? As luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself last week. Advertisement Las Vegas Raiders starting left tackle Kolton Miller, a 2018 first round pick who is entering the final season of his contract, has yet to show up for the team's voluntary offseason program. Miller, who is 29, is due a $12.2 million base salary with no guaranteed money. Reports have suggested his expiring contract is the reason for his absence. He's trying to force a contract extension. According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Raiders haven't taken the bait. They haven't engaged in any contract discussions with Miller to this point. And, considering he has a $15.7 million cap hit in 2025, sure seems like a prime trade candidate if the sides can't reach a new deal. Perhaps the Raiders, with Pete Carroll in his first season at the helm as head coach, will ultimately work out a new deal and settle the matter. Advertisement Or, maybe, they won't blink. Maybe they're open to making a deal. If the Patriots haven't done so already, they need to kick the tires on Miller, and put together a significant trade offer. Maybe a third-rounder for starters, seeing as the Patriots have two, and see where it goes. The Raiders might not want to surrender their starting tackle for a third-rounder, but it's still worth a try even if they have to sweeten the pot. In any case, if the Raiders are open to a trade, the Patriots also have to be willing to overpay Miller on a contract extension to make it all work and get the deal done. That shouldn't be out of the realm, given the Patriots have the cap space - an NFL-topping $67.6 million, per Over the Cap - to take on Miller's cap hit and offer up an extension. Advertisement Miller certainly fits the need because he's a proven commodity. He's been a good and reliable blind side protector. That's worth its weight in gold given the Patriots left tackles have been anything but in recent years. Throughout the course of seven seasons, Miller has played in 109 games, starting 107 of those. His 80.6 overall Pro Football Focus grade in 2024 was 13th among tackles. Another element supporting the notion to go after Miller is the fact Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels coached him for two seasons (2022 & 2023) in Las Vegas. Miller was a captain for McDaniels, who knows first-hand what he's capable of. Advertisement The biggest motivator here is for the Patriots to be able to go into the draft with a bonafide starting left tackle in the building. That would open up so many more possibilities at No. 4 in the draft and beyond. Instead of being forced into taking Campbell, which seems to be the consensus choice, Vrabel would have so many more options. He could trade down and get a few more assets if he finds a willing partner. Or, he could literally take the best player available, as opposed to the best tackle available. If Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter drop, the Patriots can take one of them without hesitation. If neither one drops, they can go in any direction. Advertisement With Miller potentially available via trade, the Patriots have been given a gift. Starting left tackles don't just appear out of the blue. Landing Miller would solve the problem, and as an added bonus, allow the Patriots to operate freely on Thursday. They can play the field without being married to one position. If they want to take the best defensive player, it could be Georgia outside linebacker Jalon Walker. Or, Michigan defensive lineman Mason Graham. On the offensive side, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and Penn State tight end Tyler Warren would be in play. In the big picture, going after Miller is an easy choice. It's a no-brainer. It just comes down to whether or not the Patriots can hatch the right deal and make it happen. More Patriots Content
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Seahawks Cooper Kupp has emulated since growing up in Yakima. And why he's here
As he walked the long hallway from his new locker room to the team meeting room, Cooper Kupp passed hundreds of framed photos. They were from all the Seahawks' victories back to the team's expansion season. That was 1976. Seventeen years before Kupp was born, in Yakima. Wearing a thick flannel over a vintage Pearl Jam T-shirt — yeah, he's definitely from here — Kupp zeroed in on the photos of Doug Baldwin playing in Seattle's mid-2010s Super Bowl seasons. Kupp, the All-Pro wide receiver Super Bowl 56 MVP with his now-former Los Angeles Rams, was a senior at Davis High School in Yakima during Baldwin's 2011 rookie season with the Seahawks. Kupp watched Seahawks games on local television every football weekend growing up in Yakima. He did the same in Cheney, while he was an overlooked wide receiver at Eastern Washington University. He broke Eags' records and become the Walter Payton Award winner for the nation's best college player at the Football Championship Subdivision. 'I was walking through the halls back here, it's like, looking at these photos of iconic (plays), just moments in games, and being able to recognize 'Man, I remember where I was when that happened,'' Kupp, who turns 32 in June, said Tuesday inside the Seahawks' Virginia Mason Athletic Center. 'We were just talking down the hall, Doug Baldwin, one of the best counterbalance releases in history. It's like little pieces of a game like that. Like, 'Man, that's something that I do!' It's watching Doug Baldwin do that stuff to guys, turn people around all the time. 'So that's part of what is in my bag. It's something that I carry with me. There's guys that have come through this organization that have been impactful in ways they might not know about how I play the game.' Kupp signed his three-year, free-agent contract earlier Tuesday. The Rams, the only NFL team he's played for until now, last week released their 2021 NFL offensive player of the year. That was when the former ninth-grader at Davis in Yakima who wanted to be a USC running back dominated the NFL with a league-leading 145 receptions, league-best 1,947 yards and NFL-topping 16 touchdowns. Kupp agreed to his contract with his home-state team five days after the Seahawks traded two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver DK Metcalf to Pittsburgh. Kupp's deal is worth a maximum of $45 million, an average maximum value of $15 million per year through the 2027 season with Seattle. 'Full-circle moment, coming back, being able to throw on a Seattle Seahawks jersey. That's a really cool thing,' he said. 'That's something that I don't take lightly. 'Just really excited to be able to be a part of this program, what this program has been about, and continue to move it forward.' Speaking a few feet in front of his wife Anna — they met when he was on the Davis High track team and she was competing for Richland High School — Kupp said he didn't get a reason from the Rams why they released him. 'Not a ton of clarity in that regard,' Kupp said. 'It's been difficult. In all honesty, it's been very difficult and frustrating, and there's been lots of questions. It's a real tough situation. I've said, I've always imagined that I'd finish my career there. But that's not what the plan was that God had for me and my family. 'Stepping into this new adventure, this new place, this new chapter in my career but also in our lives as my wife and I navigate moving back up home, back up to our home state, I think that's something that we're excited about facing. We're excited about the community that we get to be a part of, the people that are going to be a part of our lives. 'But yeah, it has been difficult. Without a doubt, it has been difficult. And we're humans. We're real people. ' Injuries on top of cost was why L.A. released him. He's missed 17 games the last three seasons since he signed a three-year, $80 million extension with the Rams following his breakout 2021. The Rams see him as turning 32, expensive and recently hurt. Many see Kupp as fading. But in this era where athletes seek every opportunity to put a chip of their shoulders for (often-manufactured) motivation, Kupp wants none of that. 'I've had people doubt me for a long time through my life,' he said. 'In some ways, rightfully so. I was a very small kid growing up and cared a lot, but there's a lot of people that care a lot and just don't have the stuff to string together. 'But with all those doubts and all those things, it's never been about proving other people wrong. I think I've lived in that space, and it never goes well. It's been about being who I am, like, believing in myself and knowing that I can be who I see myself becoming. When I've taken that attitude, when I've taken that mindset, that's always when I've been at my best. And I'll continue that.' Kupp said after eight NFL seasons, 'I know how to navigate these waters. I've been here before. 'And it's not about the negative energy,' he said. 'It's not about proving anyone else wrong, trying to make anyone else feel bad about anything. 'It's just about being myself and being who I believe I can be and going out there and playing the game I love.' Kupp thanked his Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, general manager John Schneider plus his former Rams teammate Ernest Jones and Seattle wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. They all gave him the same, enthusiastic endorsement about the Seahawks as he was deciding where to sign as a free agent. 'I thought that the messaging from Mike and from John, from 'Kubes', from all the guys I talked to here, the messaging was right on par with what I thought was how you build a championship team. It's about the people,' Kupp said. 'You focus on bringing good people that are about ball, and all the other stuff is going to fall in place. 'That's something that I was like, 'Man, this is something that I know that that's how you build a good team.' I know the best teams I've been a part of have been built that way. 'So that excited me.' So did what he called the 'belief' that he feels from Seahawks leaders. He sees that as stemming from the Seahawks' success of the last dozen years, including consecutive Super Bowls at the end of the 2013 and '14 seasons. Kupp said doesn't see these Seahawks, coming off a 10-7 season in 2024 despite not making the playoffs for the second consecutive year, as that far from contending for the Super Bowl. He'll be playing with, and mentoring, Smith-Njigba, with Tyler Lockett and traded DK Metcalf no longer in Seattle. Smith-Njigba, the team's first-round draft choice in 2023, tied the recently released Lockett's Seahawks record with 100 receptions this past season. Smith-Njigba primarily played the slot receiver, lining up inside in three- and four wide-receiver formations in 2024. In the slot is where Kupp became an All-Pro, a Super Bowl MVP and an $80 million man. But the newest Seahawks sees no duplication in his and Smith-Njigba's games with Seattle's new quarterback Sam Darnold throwing to them in 2025. 'In eight years with the Rams, I think I was tagged with 'the slot.' But I don't know how you determine that when we're in condensed formations, I'm outside but I'm running a slot route,' Kupp said. 'A lot of times I was outside, and I'm not sure if it was being tagged as a slot route or not. 'But the ability to move in an offense and the ability in this offense and what Kubiak has done is being able to formation guys to be anywhere. That's how I had learned this offense originally was, that you've got to learn the whole thing because you could be in any one of these spots at any time. 'I think Jaxon did some of that same stuff last year where he played inside and outside and being able to run routes that are typically for an 'X' (split end on the line) or an 'F' (a receiver who runs double moves and deep routes) or a 'Z' (flanker off the line), being able to run all that stuff. I think that's what we've got. 'We've got guys that are going to be willing to learn the offense as a whole there and be able to take advantage of those opportunities.' He'll do that with the team he grew up watching. Including in person. He attended a Seahawks game watching from the upper deck of Lumen Field 19 years ago, when he was 13. 'A snow game against the Packers, 2006,' Kupp said of Nov. 27, 2006, a Monday night in Seattle. 'I was up in the very top, frozen as an icicle up there. But it was incredible watching. (Shaun) Alexander went off. It was a crazy. 'I feel like I got to miss school the next day, so it was like bonus points because I didn't have to go to school the next day. 'But yeah, memories. I have memories of being there, being part of that environment, and it's such a cool thing. That was a special thing growing up, to be able to go to a Seahawks game. A very special memory.'
