MoLewisrocks

Gives fans who are interested a little more insight as to how the systems inner workings and thought process via his time spent with the assistant coaches and Caserio.

Only quibble is he can't quite let go of the ball you have to catch yet...

Also some hints at where they see this value and depth in this draft, what they see for McCourty going forward, and this system note...

Patriots in good shape with draft preparation - The Boston Globe

NEP4Life

Four points on the route tree to make a decision?

If we assume 2 options per point, then 1 route is actually 8 possible routes.

Is that level of complexity more burden than it's worth, because it unduly restricts the pool of available receivers?

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Tunescribe

I thought this bit was remarkable on Welker being unused to downfield passes:

Yes, I defended Wes Welker last week, but it wasn’t because I thought Tom Brady was more to blame because of the pass he threw. It was because the oft-used line to explain why Welker should have caught the pass - “It’s a pass he catches all the time’’ - is patently untrue. Welker threw fuel on the fire with his comments after the game, but he was just being a good teammate. Scott Kacsmar of coldhardfootballfacts.com put my research on Welker to shame: He found that of Welker’s 554 receptions since 2007, just 11 (1.99 percent) were thrown 20 yards or more in the air. And one was from Matt Cassel.

Well, we have had guys that show it CAN be done, including Randy Moss. Can you imagine what it would be like having Larry Fitzgerald on this team? (One of the brightest players in the league regardless of position.)

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skinnydog

Ok, so let me get this straight. The route tree receivers have to master is so complex that only Deon Branch gets it and somehow that's an advantage? Ok got it.

MoLewisrocks

Yeah, and his agents likely want Bedard and CHFF to shut the eff up at this juncture...

I was just reading a thread over on the planet where someone noted Matt Chatham weighing in on the viability of stats based analysis in football on twitter in response to some of the stuff he was seeing CHFF spouting on Brady. Says Brady has one of the best deep balls in the game and he's seen thousands of 'em and there are too many variables in football to make pronouncements based simply on statistical data. In other words, when it hits you in the hands you have to make the catch... And when your getting hurried, knocked down or sacked on more than 50% of your attempts, a deep thread isn't going to save you. Brady needs an outside threat to stretch the field horizontally. He hasn't got time for vertically although he certainly has the arm for it. Belichick obviously realizes this and he did something to facilitate it this season only it didn't work for non statistical reasons he apparently didn't fully consider.

Onedaful

This had me cracking up. But is it really only Branch "getting it" or like someone else stated is TB not throwing it to Ocho because of lack of chemistry. Regardless I think its still necessary to get another fast, tall receiver to keep the defense honest and run down the sidelines.

Deus Irae

That's just Bedard backtracking some more after his ridiculous explanation which essentially pinned the blame on Brady. We're now supposed to say it's not on Welker, with the result that it's still on Brady (psst.... even though he's not actually saying that), because the ball traveled further in the air.

Bedard's been pretty good at his job overall, but he's making himself look worse on this matter every time he brings it up.

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MoLewisrocks

Branch, Givens, Patten, Brown, Welker, Gaffney, Woodhead, even old bug eyes mastered it (he just suffered more from easyitis - the knock on him from SD was he won't make the easy catch in the clutch and that proved to be true). UDFA's like Hoyer and Edleperson (who was a QB) have a pretty solid grasp of it. As did Cassel although his time in KC may have about wrung it out of him. It is an advantage because defenses who see it once or twice a season struggle to counter it. It's like merely average athletic ability meets intangible slight of hand. The alternative is pure athletic domination, but that comes at a cap and draft capital cost and most teams who persue that route don't end up playing in February in part because those players cost so much it's harder to field a competitive team around them and even if they do their skillsets translate to the point they are harder to retain. Because of the dearth of truly cerebral QB's in this league or teams attempting to run this complex a system, our players skillsets don't necessarily translate.

If you want to draft receivers who will fit this system, step away from the high ceiling low floor raw athletic skills types and focus on the guys who seem to make plays despite the perception that they lack prototypical tools. Those are the guys who find a home in this system because it helps them to alter and often beat limited perception based on sheer athleticism and talent. The others aren't often willing to work at something that heretofore has come naturally to them.

I will never forget Bill crowing the old coaching adage you can't teach speed when he drafted Chad Jackson. Turns out he was right... Can't make a slow player faster - although you can counter that with coaching that makes him mentally if not physically quicker, but neither can you necessarily make a fast player smarter and if you can't you have nothing here. What the system provides is consistency, but that seldom cuts it for a demanding fan base who want to just win now and worry about later later.

Va_Pats_Fan

This does not mean there are 4 decisions on every route, resulting in 8 possible routes every time. This is an example of the most complex situations. The way it was phrased, sounds like most of the routes are less than that.

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MoLewisrocks

Moss didn't really do it though. He understood it in theory and had the mental capacity to grasp it, he just lacked the skill set to truly fit in and participate in it. They made an exception for him, for a time, until his production and cost no longer justified that kind of accommodation. Not to say Fitz wouldn't, but at $15M would it really be worth it?