betterthanthealternative

Twenty five years of rooting for this team and I'm more optimistic than I've ever been. Dementia setting in? You be the judge. Here's what's possible:

On D
DL: Big Al, Ellis, Carter, play well; Brace and any other second year player improve; Warren and Wilfork play as well as last year. Wright's recovery is an added (but not required) bonus.

LB: Mayo maintains; Spikes, Ninko, Cunningham improve; two of a half dozen OLB possibilities fulfill their potential.

DB: the best CB duo in the league shows up and stays healthy; one of Arrington/Butler plays well; Ras-I works his way into packages for the second half of the year and handles big receivers; Chung continues to improve, and the other safety plays average.

On O
OL: The youngsters learn and get healthy, so last year's "good" line gets better. Connelly's confidence from last year improves his play for this year.

Receivers: 85 is reborn; Welker and Branch benefit from 85's presence; the tight ends get better (almost inevitable); Price blossoms.

Backfield: Brady maintains; the young backs show up well; Woodhead is better in his second year in the system; Law firm is better (as camp reports indicate).

Special teams are good as usual, with even more competition for punt and kickoff returners.

Just forget about injuries for the purposes of this post (it's about kool aid, after all).

cstjohn17

Good team, but the 2007 team was stacked. Go back and look, depth everywhere.

NEPats1

Good post man. I was re-watching the Pittsburgh game last season and Collinsworth brought up an interesting point: The Pats started 3-4 rookies last year on defense alone. (5-6 if you count Gronk and Hernandez)

He said for any other team that would've been considered a rebuilding year by starting that many young players, and the Pats came out of it 14-2.

I think there's a lot of optimism with this current group.

I'm so excited!


(I think I misunderstood the OP so please don't hold it against me! )

TheSolderKing

We LACKED the BIG TE. We LACKED a plethora of weapons in which Brady could share the wealth w/ it was a Randy Moss throw it up kinda situation (yes we had stallworth and Jabar.
I'd take 2010 offense over 2007's any damn day of the week. The weapons NOW create so many mismatches and our possibilities are endless.


2007 didn't FINISH our O-Line s_ hit the bed in the SB. Our current O-Line is going to be far better than that extremely impressive 2007 version. 2007 O-line was not the best. I believe we posses the BEST O-Line right now. Every player must stay healthy and we do not need key injuries derailing our chances of GLORY.


G-men had best O-line did they not?

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fumbrunner

Injuries are always the wildcard. If they stay healthy, they are in good shape. The DL was a mess last year with injuries. Losing Bodden killed us in the secondary. I agree, this team could replicate their record from last year. Here's hoping they stay healthy in key positions.

IllegalContact

tjis team may not score as many points as that team, I think it is a more physical team.

I think these guys will be able to play rogh with anyone.....something we havent had for the last few years......

cstjohn17

I barely like to even mention 2007, the Superbowl was brutal but the fact is that the 2011 offense will not be as good as the 2007 offense (best ever). They were stacked at every position and decided to play an average game when the Giants played their best game.

I don't have time now but later I will go through position by position and we can continue the debate.

PATSYLICIOUS

I find it hard to temper my expectations this year. A 14-2 team that looks to have significantly improved itself and hopefully sees continued improvement from a high % of young players.

2007 team had more firepower, more talent. But this team has better depth and is younger/more versatile. Should be better built for January. Then again, experience was another advantage in '07.

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The young Gott-stra
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Holy Diver

Don't forget Mesko....

He was arookie starter too.

All and all we had 8 rookies play significant roles on a 14-2 squad!

So let's see....


all 22 Starters from last season are back from a 14-2 team. Add Haynesworth, Ocho, Carter, Ellis, Anderson etc.


PLUS: Our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd picks in the draft might not see the feild for a while...


I'm just glad teh Eagles are siging everyone under the sun and taking some of the shine off the Patriots.


(Shhhhhhhhhhhhh....... don't tell anyone, but we are WAY deeper than last year)

TommyBrady12

I've been thinking the same thing for the past week or so. Here are my thoughts. The offense has the potential to be equal to or better than the 2007 offense.

RB - no more laurence "dancing with the stars" maroney." BJGE, woodhead, ridley, vereen, faulk/morris (one will get cut) is way better than the 2007 RBs.

WR/TE - Ocho takes the place of Moss, who is better than 85 but throw in Branch and the Hernandez, Smith and Gronkowski and the 2010 TEs are better. I mean brady had little TE help in 07' from Watson. Now this position is loaded.

OL - agreed it is younger and a little deeper.

Defense: in general the team is younger at certain positions, but i think our secondary is better than the 2007 team, particularly at CB.

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"He’s the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. He goes from being a rookie that nobody is expecting anything from, to taking over with people saying he can’t do it, to winning three Super Bowls....It should already be obvious he’s the greatest quarterback to ever have played. "

- Steelers S Troy Polamalu on Tom Brady