David Thomas=Joe Jurevicius ? Plus offense changing ? - Page 2 - New England Patriots Forums

hwc · 05-16-2006, 02:33 AM

Bill Parcells touched on this issue in his recent press conference.

He said that defenses play so much nickle these days that they match up well against three and four WR sets. However, when you put two TEs (or similar players) on the field, it causes serious matchup problems. If the defense stays in the nickle, the extra DB is mismatched against a 260 pound receiver. But, if they stay in the base defense, the linebackers have trouble against the faster pass-catching TEs.

I think Belichick saw these same trends coming a few years ago and has been drafting with mismatches in mind. Having a bunch of these type TE players forces the defense to pick their poision -- generally forcing them to stay in a base defense.

Bostonian1962 · 05-16-2006, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scott99

I see a lot of WR in David Thomas' highlites rather than TE. He can be a very dangerous player, wherever he lines up. Maybe he can be our big posession WR.

This also brings to mind, is it possible our offense is changing ? Big Time change ? With Josh Daniels becoming the full time co-ordinator, is he making big changes to the offense ? With Thomas AND Mills being drafted, and both are more H-Backs than TE's, are we going to change to a somewhat different offense ? I truly see Mills as an H-Back, but who will play some fullback, and Thomas is a Chris Cooley type of TE, more receiver than TE. Mills out of the backfield as a receiver reminds me of the 49er's offense in the 80's and Moose Johnston of the 90's Cowboys. I always remebered thinking how devastating a pass catching FB out of the backfield was, are we heading that direction ?

What I'm getting at, is I really think that we (and opposing defenses) will not be able to predict what the hell will be going on, on most plays, and thats a GOOD thing.

Maybe I'm over reading the potential of what a 3rd and 4th round player's playing time will be, It's quite possible Thomas and Mills will spend most of their first seasons on special teams, but if the play up to their potentials, they can be potent receiving weapons for Brady. To go along with Branch, Jackson, Caldwell, Brown, Watson, Graham, and Faulk & Maroney out of the backfield. Geez, that is a scary group to face. If the O-line plays well, watch out.

Right on. This offense is going to be amazing. Weapons out the ying-yang. Hey, that's the first time I used ying-yang in a post.

Ochmed Jones · 05-16-2006, 12:50 PM

It's very hard to see Mills lined up at TE and getting any separation on his routes. It seems to me that he has to be in the slot or coming out of the backfield. Thomas is strictly a TE, but no where near good enough at this point to be an option over a healthy Graham or Watson. (Maybe he could work as a goal line 3rd TE.)
At the end of the day, both are exceptional ST players and for the forseeable future they need to excel at that part of the game.

Alk · 05-16-2006, 01:07 PM

When I see Dave Thomas, I see hamburgers....lots of hamburgers. Mmmmmmmmmmm...