Kayshon Boutte's Long, Strange Trip Has Brought Him to the Point He's Becoming One of the Best Deep Threats in Football
If there was one constant throughout the entire 20 year run of the Patriots Dynasty - save for the 3.25 seasons between the time Randy Moss arrived and the time Randy Moss started bitching about his touches and got traded - it was the public and the media rending their garments, screaming to the sky, and demanding a deep threat receiver. A field-stretcher. Someone who'd take the top off a defense. No price was too much to pay. No draft pick was too high or too risky. No matter how much success the team had building around Troy Brown, Wes Welker, Julian Edelman or Rob Gronkowski, the visions of deep balls lofting over the heads of safeties and into the arms of some tracklete just never went away.
And now it would appear we finally have that guy. And he showed up in the most unlikely place. They found him near the bottom of the worst wide receiver room in the league in 2023-24. With time spent in Bill Belichick's doghouse. And almost in prison.
Now you'll find Kashon Boutte in the end zone on the business end of Drake Maye bombs. In the last three weeks alone, he's caught touchdowns of 25, 29, 39 and 39 yards. He leads the entire NFL in passer rating when targeted of 143.8. On passes of 20-plus yards, that's a PERFECT 153.8, with a league-best 90% completion % and the second most receptions.
While he's "only" third among wideouts on his own team in catch percentage on all passes (76.7), that's just because Mack Hollins and Stefon Diggs are tied for the league lead with 85.7. He's still Top 15 in football. And he's third in the league in the NFL with 18.7 yards per reception. The last time any Patriots posted a number like that for a full season, it was Stanley Morgan in the '70s and '80s, who did it pretty much every year (19.2 YPR career average). During the Dynasty years, the only one who came close was David Patten in 2004 with 18.3 YPR. And he caught less than half the targets that came his way.
In short (I know that's no longer possible), Boutte has established himself as the classic boundary X-receiver you've been dreaming off since Moss went off the rails in Week 4 of 2010. Josh McDaniels lines him up outside the numbers 88.1% of the time, which is third most in the league. And while he's third in the league in receiving yards on deep balls, he's doing the most damage with 5 TDs.
I mean, nobody could have predicted this happen. No one. OK, maybe one. At the risk of coming across as braggadocious, there was a feeling deep down in these Old Balls that suggested this was possible when Boutte was drafted:
Simply put, Boutte is compelling for reasons good and bad. There's a lot to love about his game, and reasons to wonder whether there are legitimate concerns that caused him to fall to 187. Mostly good. Which is where we'll start.
For openers, and it bears repeating, Boutte was on his way to being a mortal lock 1st rounder early in his career. He's 5-foot-11, 197 pounds, with 4.41 speed. That's a rare size/speed blender drink indeed …
In 10 games in 2020, he hauled in 45 receptions on 76 targets for 735 yards, 16.3 YPC, and five touchdowns, almost exclusively lined up out wide.
Then in 2021, he was off to a great start while splitting his time between the boundary X-receiver spot and the slot, with NINE touchdowns in his first six games. When he was repeatedly charbroiling top corners. Including the best playmaker in this draft [Emmanuel Forbes].
Then game an injury that ended his season. And by the time he recovered, LSU had hired Brian Kelly. Boutte rejoined the Tigers in the middle of a season when he was still trying to find his way onto the field with a new staff and a new system and that train was already moving without him. When he did take the field, they miscast him and Slot Shamed him (credit to The League for that term). His production fell way off, along with his draft grades. Which is how he found himself still waiting for a call in the 6th round.
And karma caught up to that fooking fraud:
I'll confess that after he was charged with gambling on LSU games, I wrote a post admitting I was wrong to be so optimistic. But he was never arrested, per se. He turned himself in to the authorities, posted bond, went free, and all charges were eventually dropped. All of them. All 8,900 of them. I guess it happens. Innocent until proven guilty, I guess.
Well now I'm here to admit, with all humility, that I was wrong when I thought I was wrong. That in fact, I was right the first time. Which means my only mistake was to doubt my own genius. Which is an error I do not plan to repeat.
But then again, when it comes to underestimating Kayshon Boutte, I'm in good company. Belichick benched him for months over his failure to get both feet in bounds on a tough throw from Mac Jones. Neither Bill O'Brien nor Alex Van Pelt could figure out how to unlock his skill set. And even Mike Vrabel had to see him catch that pass in the video before he'd believe what his players were saying:
That it was as good as caught. This is just what Boutte does in 2025. The guy you've been looking for has been here for years.
Requiescat in Pace, Beef.
