Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Snap Shakeup: How Romeo Doubs Transforms Patriots WR Room

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

New England Patriots' wide receiver rotation faces a shake-up as Romeo Doubs arrives with expectations to surpass Stefon Diggs in offensive snaps. Could Doubs' versatility and snap count push Pop Douglas off the roster and spark competition among Efton Chism, Kyle Williams, Kayshon Boutte, and Mack Hollins for diminished opportunities? Nick Cattles explores how Doubs' presence could prompt a wide receiver trade and alter the team's snap distribution in 2026. Denzel Boston's draft stock plummets, but his Pro Day injects new intrigue for Patriots fans. Is Boston's contested catch prowess enough to offset concerns about his straight-line speed and press-man struggles? Nick Cattles weighs the pros and cons, compares Boston to Chris Brazzell, and breaks down Kevin Byard's team-friendly contract. Plus, analysis of recent signings and New England's evolving roster-building strategy. Will these moves bolster the Patriots' playoff ambitions? Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-patriots/ Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/nfl/ #patriots #newenglandpatriots Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at 5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Romeo Dobbs should undoubtedly help the Pats in 2026, but he's also going to change some of the snaps for the other guys in that room. Let's break it down. This is Lockdown Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network, your team every day. What's happening? I'm your host, Nick Cattles, and today's episode is brought to by Fandul. Vandul is giving you away to turn that energy into your time. to even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parley profit boost,

head to Fandul.com to get started. On today's show, if you thought signing Kevin Byrd was a great decision, just wait until you hear the actual details of his contract. In the second segment, Denzel Boston is falling down draft boards and could fall into the lap of the paths. But first, the Romeo Dobbs effect. Romeo Dobbs, his deal, 100% impacts. the rest of the wide receiver room. The question is, the million dollar question is how much

will Dobbs impact that room? Now, it sounds like, and we've talked about Dobbs replacing Stefan Diggs's role in this offense and his ability to do so. I think Romeo Dobbs can be as good, if not better than Stefan Diggs was in 2025 and 2026. But here's a part of the Romeo Dobbs signing that we have not discussed just yet, and we're going to discuss it today. Romeo Dobbs last year for Green Bay took 78% of the offensive snaps. Again, that number is 78%. Do you remember what Diggs did for the Patriots in 2025? Diggs took 55% of the snaps in New England last year.

Now, there were extenuating circumstances with Stefan Diggs. mostly the ACL and him returning from that injury. But Stefan Diggs's real contract, quote unquote, his actual contract was a one year, $18.5 million deal that included some, you know, per game roster bonuses that were pretty high. Now, I would expect Romeo Dobbs to play more than Stefan Diggs. I would expect Dobbs to play more in 26 than you saw Diggs play in 25. So even if Dobbs took a step back, if he took a step back from his usage in Green Bay,

if he took a step back from that 78% and say he went down to 70% shoot, let's just say he goes down to 65%. If he goes down to 65%, that's still 10% more of the snaps that he's going to play for the Patriots offense than Diggs did. If he falls from 78% to 70% that's 15% more snaps from Dobbs than you got from Diggs. Now, what does that mean? Just using some logic and common sense, if Romeo Dobbs is going to play more than Stefan Diggs played this past season, that means there's going to be less opportunity for the other receivers in the room.

And that is going to impact those other receivers. I'll give you some example. Let's start with Efton Chisholm. Efton Chisholm right now on this roster is wide receiver 6. I think many of us would agree with that. Right now in the middle to late March, Efton Chisholm is your sixth wide receiver on the depth chart. He is clearly wide receiver 6,

and now it was tough to get him on the field. It was tough to keep him active without injury in 2025. It's going to be even tougher with Dobbs instead of digs, just looking at the numbers. Now, let's look at Pop Douglas. Pop Douglas, he was, I would say, a pretty awkward fit for the Josh McDaniels offense last year. I don't think that's going to change much.

You can't really utilize him as a blocker, which we've talked about. I saw Evan Lazar this week also mentioning how Pop Douglas is not necessarily great in reading and feeling zone defense and getting to the right spot at the right time. for his quarterback, which is a big part of the Josh McDaniels offense. And also let's look at what Pop Douglas does. He's mostly a slot inside receiver guy. And so now you're adding Romeo Dobbs. And I don't know if Dobbs will play as many, quote unquote, slot snaps as Diggs did last

season. But you are adding that element along with Dobbs's ability to go outside. So his versatility, again, if he fills the Stefan Diggs role and he is playing in the slot a decent amount, the opportunities for Pop are pretty much shot for the most part. So not a great fit with the offense. I don't think he's going to get more snap opportunities in 2026, which begs the question whether or not Pop Douglas will be on the 2026 roster. I would not be surprised. I've said this a couple times, but I'm going to hammer this point again.

I would not be surprised if Pop Douglas is eventually traded at some point during this offseason, whether it's before the draft, during the draft, right after the draft, that would not surprise me whatsoever. So Chisholm, I think an even tougher uphill climb to be a part of this team. And Pop Douglas might be out. Now, of course, if you trade Pop, then Chisholm's now wide receiver five, but that also makes you wonder if the Patriots would draft a wide receiver and replace Pop with the receiver that they drafted. It's all part of this juggling act in this big puzzle that is this position right now for the PACs.

And then you look at Kyle Williams. What is Romeo Dobbs going to do for Kyle Williams? And I think the biggest question for Williams is can he leapfrog either Kashan Booty or Mack Hollins? Does he have a chance? Does he have an opportunity? I'm sure the Patriots coaching staff will give him a shot to leapfrog one or both of those guys. But if Kyle Williams, if he can't leapfrog booty or Hollins, then he remains on the outside looking in. And it might even be more difficult for him because, again, I would expect, I would anticipate Dobbs to play more than digs did.

So that's even tougher for Kyle Williams to get on the field. And you think about, well, Kyle Williams might be. able to do a couple of different things at receiver, you might be able to utilize his yak and you might be able to move him a little bit along the line of scrimmage. The issue with that is Matt Collins, Kayshan Booty, and Romeo Dobbs can all do that. They can all move around. We saw this offense utilize Mack Hollins as that big inside receiver because of his ability to block.

They can do the same thing with Booty. They can do the same thing with Dobbs. So the versatility of Kyle Williams or the versatility you hope that he will have, it doesn't necessarily help him get on the field more because the other guys have that versatility. So it's going to be a battle for snaps. It really is. And for Kayshan Bouti, it's a very interesting situation because he's walking into his contract year. I mean, if you're a booty, you want opportunities.

You know, you want as many opportunities as possible. And he started off the season great in 2025, but he actually finished short of what he did in 2024. And who would have ever thought that given the start that he had? I mean, I thought we talked about it during the season. And I had said it's a little too early. Let's not get too crazy just yet. But he was starting to track as a legitimate number two receiver. And then he fell off a cliff.

And so you have that situation. with booty walking into the final year of his contract. And if he isn't signed long term, he will be an unrestricted free agent next off season. Do you think he's going to want some targets? Do you think he's going to want an opportunity? Now, as far as Mack Hollins goes, in 2025, Hollins played 68% of the snaps. I think that's likely lower in 2026.

And that would make some sense. So, you know, maybe you take away some of Hollins's snaps and you give those snaps to Dobbs and you can sneak Kyle Williams or or booty on the field. Hollins is going to be 33 years old in September. This is all to paint a picture for you that Dobbs is going to be on the field, I think, a decent amount. I'd be shocked if he doesn't play the most snaps at the position given the contract that he just signed and because of his ability, which means inevitably he's going to be taking snaps from other guys. So it's going to be a very interesting piece of business that Josh McDaniels has to do with his wide receiver group to get the most out of them.

And maybe Pop's not the only guy who ends up getting dealt. But it is absolutely something to think about. It's something that I don't think many people have discussed. I know I haven't discussed it until this episode, but Dobbs is going to play more than digs. And the snaps, he's going to gobble up, inevitably going to be taking away from somebody else on this roster. Denzel Boston, speaking of receivers,

Denzel Boston's draft stock has fallen, but his pro day might have changed the math for the paths. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by the five-hour energy flavor draft. We're looking at 18 flavors from the nostalgic carnival vibe of cotton candy to the bold bite of sour apple. The board is ready, and I'm making my selection. My number one pick, it's berry.

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Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everydayer. Speaking of, don't forget to check out the Everydayer Club for ad-free episodes and access to a group chat with other listeners of this show. Tap the link in the show notes to find out more or go to lockdown patriots. com. If you're watching us on YouTube, click that thumbs up for us. Give us a like, throw a comment in your thoughts on Dobbs playing more snaps than digs and the anticipated impact on the rest of the receivers in that room.

Don't forget to the like, comment, and subscribe. Next goal, 10,000 subscribers by the NFL draft. Speaking of the NFL draft, second time I've said speaking of, now third time, a fascinating prospect is wide receiver Denzel Boston out of Washington. He's 6,4, 212 pounds. And when we talk about the prototypical quintessential boundary X wide receiver, a big bodied, big catch radius type guy who can make plays on the boundary, contested catches.

That is Denzel Boston. He's that type of receiver. So let's go through some pros and cons because if we went back a couple of months ago, I don't think we would have thought at that time that Boston could actually be available to the Patriots at 31. but the closer we get to the draft, it feels like the closer to number 31, Denzel Boston gets. So let's look at some pros and cons.

Let's start with the pros. I mentioned last segment. Matt Hollins, his versatility, his ability to play as an inside big blocking receiver. Boston has the same type of skill. Boston could easily line up on the inside, run some pocket, power routes out of that inside position. He could also be lined up inside and help you as a blocker. He has the blocking ability.

He has the size to do that. He also has the ability to come down with contested catches. I mentioned the catch radius and Boston has it. Evan Lazor wrote about Boston's contested catch rate. Boston secured 10 of his 13 contested targets last season. Now, let's look at Denzel Boston versus man coverage. Pro Football Focus wrote that Boston is one of the best in this class against man coverage. He caught 48 passes for 558 yards against man looks over the past two seasons.

After recording a sixth ranked 83.2 pro football focus receiving grade against man coverage in 24, he upped that mark from 83.2 to 89.7 in 2025. Boston gained 23 first downs on 26 man coverage catches and secured seven of nine contested targets. Eight of his 11 touchdown grabs this past season came against man coverages, helping him generate a second ranked 134.1 passer rating. Of Denzel Boston's 20 career touchdowns, pro football, notes, 14 of them came against man.

So he has the ability against man coverage to make contested catches to make life miserable for defensive backs. Now, there is a caveat to the man coverage stuff that we will get to in the cons. But overall, man coverage, pro football focus, has Denzel Boston ranked as a very, very good. One of the best receivers in this class against man. Some other good things about Denzel Boston. He's not just a go route guy. Now, he's not going to give you the Stefan Diggs or the Romeo Dobbs route tree, but he's not just throw him out there and have him go deep, just run deep. He's not just that guy. He can do more on the field. He's got tremendous play strength, very strong dude,

strong hands, very, very good hands. His drop rate only 3.1%. And because of his size, because of his play strength, because of his really good hands, his ability to deal with contested catches and traffic and all that, he is no doubt a red zone weapon. So there are some good things about Denzel Boston. There are good things that he could bring to the Patriots offense. but the reason why he's sliding down the board, there are a couple of reasons for that.

Number one, at the combine, he did not run a 40-yard dash. Now, some people thought he would run the 40 at his pro day. He decided to not run his 40 at the pro day. So there is a legitimate, significant question about Boston's straight line speed and his ability to separate from defensive backs with the long game. Now, I mentioned about man coverage, and that was the big umbrella of man coverage. But there's one particular,

there is one particular type of man coverage that has given Boston some trouble, and that is press man coverage. Evan Lazare has written a lot about it. He's talked about it. Boston against press man, when you're going to be physical up at the, line of scrimmage and press him, he hasn't always been able to, you know, break away, create space

at the line of scrimmage. He hasn't always been able to get through that type of press man coverage, that type of contact. So the lack of the 40 time with significant questions about his straight line speed and the difficulties against press man, now you start to see what could cause trouble at the NFL level. Better athletes. So the speed is a bigger issue, and you also have some dudes in the NFL that can play press man coverage against you. And so when you combine the issues against press man and the question about the speed, as Dame Bruegler recently wrote, Denzel Boston lacks juice against man coverage in the

NFL. That's the biggest, biggest question. The lack of juice against NFL corners playing man. And so thinking of Denzel Boston has this big play threat. In reality, you might be asking him more to be a chain mover. And if you're playing press man, his inability to kind of break away from that, kind of takes him out of place. So those are the questions. And of course, the Nikiel Harry stuff is always going to come up when we talk about big-bodied, strong-handed, contested catch guys who are not necessarily great with the straight-line speed.

Now, there was some good news from Boston's Pro Day, which might get him a little bit of a jump in regards to teams in the 20s. Let's get back to Dane Bruegler. Because Dane Bruegler posted on the day of, Boston's pro day this week, quote, a lot of positive feedback from scouts. Boston looked really good with his route work and catching the ball. And interestingly enough, he didn't run the 40, but he finished with a 6.803 cone time, which is good, a 4.30 shuttle time, which is good.

And his vertical leap at the combine was 35 inches. At his pro day, it was 37 and a half. So when you look at that three cone shuttle time, vertical jump, you look at that, combination at 210 plus pounds, as Dame Brookler put it, that'll play just fine. So maybe there's a little bit more than what we've seen from Boston and Washington. Maybe there's a little bit more that you can uncover as a receiver. Now, picking him at 31, you have to feel great about him succeeding. You have to pretty much know he's going to succeed.

I've got some apprehension. Tell me who else is on the board, but I would be looking at some other players to draft before I would draft Denzel Boston. I'd be looking at Edge, a couple guys there. Chris Brosell, very interesting back and forth with him at 31 versus Denzel Boston. I'd probably lean towards Chris Brousel right now because of the speed. I'd have some apprehension, but let's see over the next five weeks, how things change and how I feel about Boston as we get closer to the draft.

Coming up, the Kevin Byrd signing gets better by the day. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live. all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets

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merchant and swap firm. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe as you watch us on YouTube. If you don't watch us on YouTube, check us out from time to time. And you can do those three things that helps out the podcast again. like, comment, and subscribe. So the Patriots, before we get to Kevin Byrd and his contract, the Patriots signed another defensive back on Thursday. Kindle Vildor kind of sounds like some kind of, I don't know, Harry Potter character

or something, Kindle Vildor, one year deal. Now, who is Kindle Vildor? Probably all of you asked. A fifth round pick by Chicago in 2020. He played two games for the Tennessee Titans in 2023 for Mike Vrable and Company. He also played for Philly. He's in the practice squad. He played for Detroit.

So Terrell Williams obviously was in Detroit, Carlton Davis in Detroit. And he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last season he played in 12 games, 23% of the snaps on defense. He has some special teams experience as well. So when you look at the secondary, you now have Christian Gonzalez, free agent coming up in a couple of years. Extension eligible, obviously his option coming up. I think he's in New England for the long term. Carlton Davis, free agent after 2027, but there's an out in the contract after next season.

Marcus Jones is signed through 2028. And then you're kind of getting into the Kindle-Vildor region. Charles Woods, Vildore, Kobe Minor, Marcellus Dial coming back from the IR, hopefully. I believe Brennan Crossley is on a futures deal. So Vildor will kind of battle Woods, Minor, and the returning, fingers crossed, Marcellus Dial to be that, you know, fourth cornerback on the roster. But a debt signing special teams guy as well. All right, Kevin Byard, awesome signing. We've talked about him being a tremendous sign.

for the Patriots. We have told you why. And the details about the Kevin Byard contract are now out. And those details make the signing of Byard even better. Mike Reese posted one year, base value of $7 million, maximum value of $9 million. We pretty much knew the max value, right? Because that's what was reported. As always, the agents got the best number, one year, $9 million. Signing bonus, $3.5 million. The total guarantee, the total guarantee for Kevin Byer to $6.17,000. million. The base salary is 2.67. He has roster bonuses, 40,000 per game, which brings him up to 680 grand. He's got a workout bonus for 150K. And then he has $2 million worth of incentives. And so this deal that I love to begin with, again, I love it even more because to me, this is the

perfect bridge type contract. Kevin Byards on a one-year deal for very, very reasonable money. It's not one of these one year, $15, $20 million deals. Rieck Wullen signed a one year $15 million deal with Philly. I love that deal for the Eagles, by the way. But this deal, you know, you're talking about $7 million less fully guaranteed. One year, that's it. Very reasonable money for a guy who was a first team all pro last year. And this really kind of prepares Craig Woodson to be the guy on the back end.

Byard will mentor Woodson and Woodson has the full year to fully prepare. So if Byard moves on, if he retires, whatever happens, Woodson can step into that leadership role at the safety spot and you don't miss a single beat. And Bayard can also help develop the next guy to take his spot. I still feel like the Patriots need to pick a developmental corner and a developmental safety come April. You got 11 picks. I would use two of those picks in the defensive backfield. And you would hope that the younger guy, that next guy, is learning from Byrd throughout the year.

The other interesting thing here is, you know, the bridge contract is great. It's really the perfect scenario for Byrd and the Patriots. But you also look at the structure of this contract. And the Patriots are structuring a lot of their contracts in the same way. So if you look at a lot of these deals, if you look at a lot of these deals, you got low base salary in year one, Romeo Dobbs, $3 million base salary, Julian Hill, $1.4 million, Fremont Jones, $2.3 million, a buyer, $2.67 million. So very low base salary numbers in year one of these contracts.

And then they also sprinkle some sugar on top. You got per game roster bonuses. This is something the Patriots are doing a lot. They did a lot, as I mentioned in the first segment with Stefan Diggs in his contract last year. So Bayard gets $40,000 per game when he's active. And it goes all the way up to the crazy Elijah Vera Tucker per game roster bonus of $250,000, which is just pretty much unheard of when you talk about per game roster bonus, a quarter of a million dollars for Elijah Vera Tucker.

So given the situation, the Patriots are protecting themselves. They protected themselves with Diggs coming off the ACL surgery. They're protecting themselves with Elijah Vera Tucker, given his injury history. They are protecting themselves, you know, a little bit with the Kevin Byard per game roster bonus because Byard's going to be 33 in August. So they're protecting themselves, but they're also giving these players the opportunity to make the money that they feel like they deserve. And it's because of those bonuses, but it's also because of the incentives. So Bayard can earn an extra $2 million through incentives. So a lot of these contracts structured the same way by the Patriots front office.

Lower base salary in year one, per game roster bonuses, throw in a workout bonus, and throw a chunk of change via incentives. And that seems to be the plan with most of their contracts. All right, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen. and for being an everydayer reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. And don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel, hit that like button and subscribe. And if you never miss an episode, the Every Dayer Club is built for you.

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