Months of speculation finally their conclusion in late August, when the New England Patriots decided to indeed trade wide receiver Kayshon Boutte. The fourth-year man, who had been an integral part of their offense the past two seasons, was sent to the Houston Texans in exchange for safety Jaylen Reed and a 2028 seventh-round draft pick that was later repurposed to bring aboard running back Corey Kiner from the Cardinals.
All three of the players either directly or indirectly involved in the original
Boutte-to-Houston trade made their debuts for their respective new teams in Week 1. And all of them were relatively quiet.
S Jaylen Reed
The third member of the Patriots’ safety pecking order behind Craig Woodson, Kevin Byard and Dell Pettus, Reed did not see any playing time on the defensive side of the ball on Wednesday night in Seattle. Even though the Patriots used three-safety sets on 20 of 50 snaps (40%), the team clearly — and unsurprisingly, given Reed’s relatively late arrival to the team — trusted Pettus in that role.
The second-year man did see the field on special teams, though. Playing eight of 22 possible snaps (36%), he played five snaps on punt return and three on the field goal and extra point blocking unit without registering any statistics.
RB Corey Kiner
Even though the Patriots were without RB2 TreVeyon Henderson, Kiner played only eight of 71 snaps (11%) versus the Seahawks. Only occasionally subbing in for workhorse Rhamondre Stevenson, he received six handoffs but gained a mere 11 yards for an underwhelming average of 1.8 yards per carry. He was not used in any different capacity, including on special teams.
WR Kayshon Boutte
The Texans opened their season at home against the Bills, and came close to a victory before ultimately fumbling the ball away while deep in Buffalo’s red zone on what potentially could have been a game-winning series. Boutte, however, did not have too active a hand in his team’s fortunes on Sunday.
While the ex-Patriot was on the field for 36 of 79 snaps (46%), he finished with only one catch: in the third quarter, Boutte gained 21 yards on a C.J. Stroud pass to help set up a Houston touchdown. He had another catch for 6 yards taken off the board due to a chop-block penalty against teammate David Montgomery, and was unsuccessfully targeted a third time by Stroud. Just like in New England, Boutte did not play special teams.
