PATRIOTSFANINPA

Lets go with 3 players from EACH of the following catagories from the 2009 season who ...

Met Your Positive Expectations?
Exceeded Your Positive Expectations?
Dissapointed you in your Expectations?


Those who Met my expectations?

Tom Brady - Back from delicate knee surgery and took them to the playoffs,thats all we could ask of him after 1 year removed from football.

Randy Moss - I didn't expect him to have a big year and I thought he probably would accomplish similar to what he did in 2008 with Cassel,it was pretty close to what I thought he would do,not too much of a change.

Vince Wilfork - I thought he took command of a Seymour-Less defensive line and played the run well all year in a contract year,I expected him to have a decent season and he did.



Those who Exceeded my expectations?

Sebastian Vollmer - This was my WTF pick in last years draft as I had never heard of the guy,But the moment Light went down with injury and he filled in you could see this guy has pro NFL talent to man the OL for a long time,He can play both LT and RT and has done a superb job of keeping pressure off of Brady,If only our other guys played with his intensity Brady would have much more time to find open guys.

Julian Edelman - Just when we think we have the best slot receiver possibly in NFL history in Wes,Here comes this so-so 7th round QB from Kent State who has never played the position yet his transition to a #3 WR seemed effortless and almost like he had done it for years,If Edelman had not broken his arm,He could have had a very small shot at ROTY,About as close to a Wes Welker as you will find right now,although he has a bit of ways to go to be in WWs class.

Tully Banta-Cain - After seeing his play this year and by far our best pass rusher,one has to wonder why Belichick let him go to SF a few years ago,I think Cain will be retained in an extention and should continue to provide some pass rush that is one of the biggest weaknesses this team has.



Those who Dissapointed my expectations?

Adalius Thomas - I thought this was the season that this high paid veteran was going to take the defense over and become a leader,That is about as far from what happened as he turned out to be disrespective of his coach and a cancer in the locker room...By FAR and away the biggest dissapointment in 09

Derrick Burgess - While he did have some very light flashes of 2005,Its obvious to me that this veteran has lost his talents,While signed after the failed Jason Taylor fiasco he was never the pass rushing threat he was hired to be and invisible for much of the season,Maybe he is simply not a good fit on this defense but I do know I was dissapointed in him.

Joey Galloway - This was the receiver we thought might have a little gas left in that old tank and his speed was still exceptional but he never caught on with Brady and he was out of sync in this offense from the beginning despite much time practicing with Brady - Joey's failure as a #3 WR was a MAJOR reason why this offense struggled against good teams when we no longer had a serious veteran threat outside of Welker and Moss.

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Bill B.

While I agree whole-heartedly with your choices, I will add some others, just to be different:

Met expectations:

Ty Warren- This guy has just been solid for the Patriots since they drafted him. A good complement to Wilfork.

Mike Wright- After Seymour was traded, we needed another d-lineman to step up and Wright did a good job.

Jerod Mayo- I expected him to lead the team in tackles and he did, despite missing three games with an injury. Expectations were high for him, and I think he came back too quick from his injury, but still a solid season.

Exceeded expectation:

Wes Welker- After two seasons with over 110 catches, I thought that defenses would somehow figure out how to slow him down. Led the NFL in receptions while missing almost three games. Should have gernered some consideration for MVP.

Gary Guyton- After Mayo went down, it fell on Guyton to anchor the defense in the middle and I thought he did a commendable job. To go undrafted and then be a starting ILB in your second year, I am sure, beat everyone's expectations.

Kevin Faulk- How long will he be effective? When will age slow him down? Made a ton of big plays for the Patriots this year. Most clutch performer on the team.

Disappointed expectation:

Dan Koppen- I like Koppen, but to be honest, it seemed like opposing DLs were getting a big push up the middle and put a lot of pressure on Brady.

Ben Watson- Too many drops. Seems to catch the hard ones but can't handle the easy ones. Thought he would have had a better year.

Jarvis Green- After Seymour left, I thought he would step up more and make more contributions, but I just didn't see it.

ALP

ill just do the dissapointed, and ill do not obvious ones:

Mayo, the guy got hurt, so u cant blame him that much, but our LB's struggled b/c of his play being nothing like it was his rookie year, hopefully hell rebound

meriweather: this inconsistency is killing me, and his repeated mistakes with the double move even more so.....he can play at a pro bowl level one week, and look like a college freshman the next

kaczur: inconstistent all year, let a rookie take over his spot, we just gave him an extension, but his struggles are NOT good

Green: we might as well not have given him that roster bonus

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Last time I lived in New England the Pats became a Dynasty

Then I moved away and they haven't won since

...now I'm moving back, and a Lombardi I predict

racicotm

Hmm...

Met

Leigh Bodden
Even though the secondary wasn't that good this year I thought bodden played well for most of the season and even great at times.

Joey Galloway
I thought it was a dumb idea to begin with and figured he wasn't going to be useful unfortunately i was right.

Exceeded

Sebas and Edelman
for obvious reasons two rookies ended up being two of the best players on the team this year.

Maroney
I still don't like maroney but even for him to have 4 games of consistency It was something that I didn't expect at all.

Dissapointed

Chung
Didn't think we were getting a superstar but I expected something anything never really happened maybe next year but dissapointed my expectations.

Fred Taylor
Well this guy came in got injured and did virtually nothing for us. Pats have to stop buying guys that are past their prime.

Wilhite and Wheatley
I figured these two would at least be serviceable this year they just aren't growing and would struggle to stay on a practice squad at this level of play.

Pats Offense less (welker and moss)
Coming into the year we didn't know what to expect from our defense but i was pretty confident that the Offense was still going to be good to above average not the case at all. This offense just had so many problems this year, couldn't protect brady, brady wasn't accurate, brady enjoyed throwing picks (ok that was a cheapshot), no TRUE RB again, didn't gameplan well enough to include Moss early, only played one half of every game, sighh...the list goes on.

kmax

Met: Welker

Exceeded: Sea Bass, Edelman, Ingram

Disappointed: Maroney, Wilhite, Wheatley, Chung, Brace, Butler, Woods, Mayo, TE's

mayoclinic

Exceeded: SeaBass, Julian Edelman, Myron Pryor, Leigh Bodden, Brandon McGowan, Tully Banta-Cain

Disappointed: Brady (I wasn't surprised he started rusty, but I think he's developed some bad habits), Adalius Thomas, Derrick Burgess, Joey Galloway, Ron Brace, Fred Taylor

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

"The key to any successful organization is to anticipate things, not react to them." - Michael Lombardi

SanAngeloState

Disappointed:

Brady - my hopes were too high, thought he'd move better in the pocket and not stare down Moss.

Moss - hard time catching in traffic on long throws, couldn't shake off Revis

Belichick - offesnes and defense lacked imagination, how many Maroney off tackles and Faulk draws do we have to see? Does someone actually get a salary for calling those?

Koppen- manhandled, borderline useless at times

Mayo - just hoping the coaching staff didn't ruin his knee by rushing him back. He's be better in a 4-3

Burgess - crazy old uncle Al isn't so crazy after all to get a 3rd and 5th on this one year rental of a JAG player he probably would have cut

Thomas - one of the worst signings of all time, just a nightmare for BB. Bad attitude, horrible play. Can't rush a passer to save his life. BB will probably never sign a top $ FA like him again. Learned his lesson.

Exceeded

Myron Pryor - need to get this guy into a 1 gap soon, looked explosive

seabass - far better than light, blows him away

Fred taylor - started out really strong

Edelmen - looked good, high effort guy, maybe he can be a #2 WR.

Cain - at least he's trying, impressive spin move

McGowan - hard hitter, good pickup

Welker - superman in a 5'8" body. Godspeed Mr. Welker.

ayjackson

Exceeded: Vollmer, Connolly, Bodden, McGowan, Banta-Cain

Dissappointed: Koppen, Galloway, Aiken, Taylor, Thomas, Burgess, Green, Brace

Met: Everybody else

Buchanty

Exceeded - Welker, Vollmer, Bodden, Arrington, Wilfork (not letting contract negotiations detract from his play).


Disappointed
- Coaching
Offensive Play Calling, Pass Rush, Special Teams.
- Front Line except Vollmer and Mankins
- Hanson
- Brace (I know he's a rookie but he needed to step up and didnt, and now feel he's going to be a bust)
- 3rd receiver (everyone of them apart from Edelman)
- Maroney (if he could have avoided coughing up the ball just 3 or 4 of the 5 times he might have made the Exceeded list)
- Fair weather fans especially many of the posters from the last 10 days - while I respect their opinions it made this site less attractive in the aftermath of the loss. I suspect we have forgotten how to digest defeat.

Everyone else more or less met expectations, which is still pretty good since I still think the RK/BB/TB trio will always produce competitive teams.

PowerAlley.com

Met Expectations: Welker, Wilfork, Ghost
Exceeded: Tully B, Myron Pryor
Didnt cut it: Mayo, Jarvis Green, Ben Watson

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Mike

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Lighting the sky all over the US!

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