Who Should I Start? Kayshon Boutte or Arian Smith

Monday, March 16, 4:25 AM

New England Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte is currently second on the team's projected depth chart, giving him some low-end fantasy appeal for the 2026 season. While Boutte finished the 2025 regular season second on the depth chart, too, he has seen his value increase a little because of the Patriots' specific wide receiver moves. Most notably, New England released Stefon Diggs and replaced him with Romeo Doubs. Doubs isn't quite as flashy a player as the veteran, nor does he fetch as many targets, so not all of Diggs' vacated targets have been accounted for yet. Some of those should go to Boutte, giving him the potential to surpass his career-high mark of 43 receptions next year. Because there's a real path to more volume and production from Boutte, he's an intriguing and affordable dynasty buy this offseason. However, dynasty managers should also acknowledge that the Patriots have been heavily in the mix for an A.J. Brown trade. If Brown were to arrive in New England, he'd immediately steal tons of targets from Boutte, dropping him back down to third on the depth chart. This is an evolving situation, and managers might want to hold off on putting together trade offers for Boutte until we get more clarity on the Brown sweepstakes.