While I love Brandon Aiyuk's game, and I actually think he may be the best receiver the 49ers have, I really don't think it would be a smart move to trade a second and third and player(s) for him given where the team is at now. I would rather see them invest those picks in a trade for a decent left tackle. My reasoning is that I don't think Aiyuk is really going to make much of a difference with the performance this early in the rebuild. I expect a very run-heavy offense because of the lack of protection this offensive line will provide. I think it would serve us better to let the kids develop at wide receiver, get a serviceable or even above average tackle in a trade and give Jacoby Brissett some time to find the receivers so they can develop in anticipation of Drake Maye. And if Maye is forced into action early, having no protection will be a nightmare for the kid. Doesn't matter how good Aiyuk is if the QB takes two steps back and gets laid out it's not going to work. Your thoughts? – Vince Tumminello

You make a lot of good points with regard to the pursuit of Aiyuk. Having a great receiver alone won't be enough to make the Patriots are great team but it would certainly help the rebuilding process along, especially on offense. I agree there is still a need for offensive line help, but I disagree that trading for a tackle makes more sense than trading for a receiver. Both are huge needs and Aiyuk is the one who became available, so I have no issues with the Patriots interest and pursuit. He's worth the investment they were reportedly willing to pay both in terms of draft picks and contract. I don't think they ever offered a first-round pick and that's where I would have drawn the line as well. I think where the Patriots erred was in the offseason when there were a couple of veteran left tackles available in free agency and they failed to land one. That left an additional hole to fill in the draft and with a quarterback at the top of the list there was only so much they could address. I completely understand your point of view with regard to Aiyuk, but I feel having a true No. 1 receiver makes everyone's job easier, including the offensive line which wouldn't necessarily need to protect as long with a player of Aiyuk's ability in the lineup. He also would allow DeMario Douglas more room to operate, and obviously whoever the quarterback winds up being would have a more skilled option. But at this point it's a moot point.

What are the Patriots getting out of prolonging or stiffing Matthew Judon on salary, which even though he sat out most of last year and will be 32 this year he's a good player and an excellent team guy. – Tim Whiting

The Judon situation has been interesting to watch all offseason. He was very productive in his first two seasons and then got injured early last year and missed the last 13 games. He also tended to wear down late in his first two seasons when the games became more important. You already mentioned that he is 32, so clearly that's a big part of the problem. We also don't know what kind of money Judon is asking for, and whether or not he wants to be extended in future years. If it's just about giving him more money for this season – perhaps around $10 million – then I'd be in favor of that. If he wants more guaranteed money in future years, then I would be against it. As for being a good team guy, this is now the second training camp in a row in which he seems to participate on his terms only. Last year he wasn't in pads until he got more money and this year he missed three of the first six padded practices. So, I don't think it's a simple matter of rewarding him. It's more complicated than that. I would give him some additional money for this season and then move on, but who knows exactly how much he wants?

I have watched three of the four Patriots quarterbacks in games. Drake Maye in college and Jacoby Brissett and Bailey Zappe in NFL games. Against good competition Zappe has a 4-4 record, Brissett has an 18-30 record and Maye could only beat bad college teams. I'm hoping Jerod Mayo, who has witnessed Zappe at his best (he threw 61 TD passes his last year in college) will at least keep him on the roster when they realize that game performance is better than practice. – Steve Joseph

I think Zappe's future in New England likely depends on the coaching staff's feelings on Maye's current development. If Mayo feels comfortable if Maye has to play, then Zappe will likely go. If he wants Maye to sit for at least part of the season because he doesn't feel he's ready, then Zappe might stick around as Brissett's backup for a bit. If Brissett were to get injured early in the season and Mayo doesn't want Maye to play, then he'd need an option and Zappe would likely be it. Based on Zappe's limited reps in camp, my guess is he won't be around for the season. Maye should be able to handle backup duties to open the season and if he has to play then so be it. You're being critical of Maye's college record claiming he didn't beat good teams (ignoring schools like Miami, Pitt, Duke etc) while pointing out Zappe's stellar college stats compiled against the likes of Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee State and Old Dominion. Zappe started eight NFL games and played in 14 games overall. He's thrown more picks (12) than touchdowns (11). To suggest his 4-4 record is somehow worthy of starting consideration is hard to agree with. Zappe was on waivers last season and no one claimed him. Do you think if Maye was waived after camp that no one would pick him up? He was the third pick of the draft and possesses far more skills than Zappe. Zappe is still young and wants to compete for a starting job, not just be a placeholder like Brissett will be this season. He will likely need to go elsewhere to find that opportunity, but let's not kid ourselves into believing Zappe played well last season. He and Mac Jones presided over one of the worst offenses in football and neither played well.

Can you explain why the Patriots are not being allocated draft compensation for promoting Jerod Mayo to head coach. The NFL should reward and embrace the Patriots for training, developing Mayo as their head coach. – Kevin Halloran

The rule giving teams compensatory picks for having minority coaches and executives hired by other teams was designed to lessen the blow of losing quality personnel. In this case the Patriots didn't lose anything so therefore they aren't owed anything in compensation. Mayo was already on the Patriots staff and was promoted to the role of head coach, which is the path that the organization chose to take. In cases where coaches were hired elsewhere, like San Francisco losing DeMeco Ryans to Houston as an example, the team lost a valuable coach and that's why the Niners received compensation. The Patriots didn't lose anything when they hired Mayo. They gained a head coach.

Is there a possibility that Joe Milton could be the second-string quarterback for the Patriots. I understand he's looked pretty good in practice. Also do you think he has a chance to become the starter seeing how Jacoby Brissett is only a temporary fix? I'm not that high on Drake Maye. – Frank Pacious

Based on what we've seen thus far in training camp I don't see that as a possibility. Milton has not taken many reps this summer and when he has worked in 11-on-11 drills he hasn't been very productive. He clearly has a great skill set and is impressive when throwing the football but there's a lot more to playing quarterback than just the ability to pass. He needs to learn the offense and develop in the system before he will be ready to play. I would say the same for Drake Maye at this stage of the summer, but Maye has been far more impressive than Milton on the practice field in camp. I'm not even sure Mayo wants Maye to be the top backup right away, but my guess is that's how the Patriots will open the season. Brissett will likely begin as the starter with Maye backing him up and Milton as the third guy, either on the active roster or the practice squad.

Considering the available cap space for this year and next, how will the Patriots improve their most deficient offensive need: two quality offensive line tackles. Potential new young draft picks may not be able to significantly improve this offense without resolving this need. – Mark Allard

Unfortunately, the time to significantly improve the situation has already come and gone. The Patriots had opportunities to address the tackle spot in free agency and in the draft and they came away with Chuks Okorafor and Caedan Wallace, neither of whom has experience playing left tackle. There will likely be some veterans who get cut and might be candidates to be brought in, but it would be hard to envision anyone with the ability to step in and be a mainstay suddenly becoming available at this stage. Tackle will likely be a high priority in next year's draft, perhaps even with the first-round pick.

Receivers that can block in space downfield are important to the outside zone running scheme that seems to be Alex Van Pelt's want. Do receivers who possess this skill warrant more consideration for a roster spot or does it give them a leg up when final cuts are due? Last season we saw DeMario Douglas, Kendrick Bourne and JuJu Smith-Schuster display this skill, and from watching rookies Javon Baker and Ja'Lynn Polk in college, they both seem to have blocking skills to support the running game. I know that to make it as a receiver in the pros requires much more than just blocking downfield. I suppose my question is, how much does skill at blocking in space determine who makes the team and who doesn't? Does the futile attempt for a star receiver (again) vindicate Bill Belichick's style for successful football? – Peter Workman

All coaches want well-rounded players and the ability to block on the perimeter is certainly a trait that NFL coaches would consider to be important. That said, Belichick constantly explained that a receiver has two main jobs – get open and catch the ball. Regardless of how physically imposing a receiver is as a blocker, if he can't do those things he's not going to win a job. If we're talking about one specific role toward the bottom of the depth chart and it's a choice between a guy with great speed and hands but can't block against someone with average speed but is considered a solid blocker then perhaps the physicality would win out. But I'd say it's far more important to offer more traditional wide receiver skills than blocking. As for Belichick's style being validated … I couldn't disagree more with the inference that Belichick didn't believe in talented receivers. The Brandon Aiyuk situation is right out of his playbook. A talented yet disgruntled player becomes available and Belichick would most definitely have been interested. Just like he did with Randy Moss back in 2007. Now, Belichick would not likely have wanted to pay Aiyuk a huge contract before seeing him play in his system, but he would have been interested in acquiring a player of his caliber for sure. He did that type of thing often.

How embarrassing is it that Brandon Aiyuk refused our offer of probably $30-plus million? And that's after Calvin Ridley, who I only consider a No. 2 wide receiver, turned down more money with us and signed with Tennessee. This is how far this team has fallen since Tom Brady left and went to Tampa. – Badax Michaud

I don't find it embarrassing at all. It's disappointing, and it's reality, but there's nothing embarrassing about going through a rebuilding process. It happens to all teams and the Patriots didn't have to worry about that for 20-plus years until Brady left. Now, things have changed with a new coach, new quarterback and low expectations. Therefore, some high-profile players have chosen to go elsewhere for various reasons. The Patriots will need to find a way to win more games in order for that to change, but every team goes through it at some point and New England is no different.

After watching the new kickoff format play out across the league in the first round of preseason games it left me feeling it has serious potential and although it looks like it is going to have its teething problems I believe it will inject excitement into a passage of play that had become completely stale. How did you see it Paul? – Marc Saez

I understand what the league is trying to do in order to create more returns, but I don't see anything "dynamic" at all about the new format. In fact, from what I saw over the weekend the average starting field position hasn't really changed much. Basically, the new format amounts to a running play with a lot of blockers congested in one area trying to spring a ball carrier free. Sure, once in a while the running back hits a crease and makes a big play. But more often than not it's a routine modest gain due to the difficulty in removing so many potential tacklers from the equation. I expect kickoff returns to be similar. There will be some big plays – as has always been the case – but not many. And if I'm wrong and teams do suddenly have trouble covering the new kickoffs, my guess is they will simply start booting the ball in the end zone again and forcing touchbacks to prevent the danger of allowing a big play.

It is great to see live football again. My question is why so many people are jumping on the Joe Milton bandwagon? Yes, his run was exciting but didn't the Patriots have a quarterback that had about a 90-yard run a few years back? Yes, he threw a deep touchdown pass, late and behind. Perhaps he was playing it safe? So many people I talk to want to go with just Drake Maye and Milton and jettison Jacoby Brissett and Bailey Zappe. Can you explain it so that I can see their side? I'm not anti-Milton, why would I be but he as to show a lot more, a whole heap more. – David Brown

I think Milton put some excitement in an otherwise dreadfully dull game against Carolina and that's what fans are talking about. I don't think it's a referendum on his ability to be the starter or representative of any anti-Brissett bias or anything like that. Milton is a physically imposing figure with tremendous skills. We will soon see if he has the ability to play quarterback at the NFL level. The touchdown pass was a much better play than you're giving him credit for. He was able to use his eyes and a shoulder fake to move the safety, which helped get his receiver in the clear. The throw was to a wide-open player, and he made it very easy for him to simply catch it and walk into the end zone. Now we'll see if he's able to build off that performance and create a roster spot for himself.

Now that the Patriots have cut JuJu Smith-Schuster, how much are they on the hook for if some other team signs him? – Morris Hickok

The Patriots will take a $9.6 million cap hit by releasing Smith-Schuster, regardless of whether or not another team signs him. That includes $7 million paid to Smith-Schuster in guaranteed salary.

We've been told that Alex Van Pelt's offense begins with establishing the run to set up opportunities for the play-action pass. In the past, when the Patriots have run the ball well they have either had an outstanding offensive line or a lead blocker to open holes. So far there is no reason to believe we are looking at an outstanding line this season. With no true fullback on the roster, what can you tell us about Van Pelt's willingness to use lead blockers and any players that seem like they could succeed in that function? The outside zone scheme seems to make it harder for a lead blocker because they have to be fast to get outside quickly and still be strong enough to manhandle a defender. – Jeff Conti

There certainly isn't a player on the current roster who profiles as a traditional fullback. The Patriots have experimented with some defensive players in that role as Keion White and Jeremiah Pharms both took snaps out of the backfield during practice last week. I don't view the fullback as being an integral part of Van Pelt's system. The Browns didn't use a traditional lead blocker in that manner in the recent past when Nick Chubb was very productive running the ball. To your point, the Browns also had a terrific offensive line to lean on. My guess is the Patriots won't necessarily have a James Develin-type on the roster but could use tight ends and/or defensive players to serve as lead blockers from time to time.

We have sort of entered the roster cutdown projection portion of training camp. I'm sure you guys will do them. Is it noteworthy though this year? We saw last year nobody wanted Bailey Zappe after he was cut and unlikely to be much demand again. Every analyst says the offensive line and wide receiver rooms are among the weakest in the league. Should we expect the Patriots to be able to bring back whomever they cut to the practice squad or are there any on the bubble guys this year that could possibly draw some interest? – Shane O'Brien

I don't think of roster cuts as being interesting only in terms of which players might get picked up elsewhere. It was quite interesting last year when Bill Belichick decided to cut Zappe and Malik Cunningham and expose them to waivers, leaving just one quarterback on the roster. The fact that they weren't claimed didn't make it any less noteworthy. Most players who are released after camp wind up back with their original team. It just makes sense to do it that way as the players are already familiar with the systems they've been in all offseason and summer. There will be exceptions also, and I could see a veteran wide receiver catching on elsewhere if the Patriots decide to let one go – someone like Tyquan Thornton or Jalen Reagor. For the most part, most of the players let go will clear waivers and either return on the practice squad or will become free agents.

DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer