AndyJohnson

"Rest" means limiting snaps. Limiting snaps means no or less participation in certain personell groupings. Rest does not mean sit out a few plays when you are tired, in this case. Rest means preserve the player over the long haul.
Whether those are snaps 1-3 in a game or 34-37 isnt really relevant.

I don't see how that is relevant. Last year they had no ability to keep Welkers snaps down. Which formation they use at the start of the game is not about who is on the field, but about the game plan and the opponent.

I don't think Welker is embarrassed by the way he is used by the Patriots.

What ifs are suggesting that 3 plays mean he wasn't going to be on the field much all game, as many are suggesting, which it appeared you were too. Projecting significance into 3 plays is relying on what if.



The OP firmly suggested that BB was doing this. You comment that there are excellent reasons to support the conspiracy theory (which says BB was benching Welker out of anger that he wouldn't sign an extension) does as well.
If you mean something different, then I lost your point.

Deus Irae

I'm not misrepresenting it, at all. I've been clear about what McDaniels said, in multiple posts. You've made your claim on thread after thread. It's been wrong every time. The reality is that they were limiting Welker's snap numbers, and that it was intentional. You can argue that it was because of game planning. You can argue that it was because God ordered them to.

However, since McDaniels has acknowledged that it happened, you can't correctly argue that it didn't happen.

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

AndyJohnson

I am the one who said they were intentionally limiting Welkers snaps. You are the one who made way more of it than it was.
They have always limited Welkers snaps, with the exception of last year when there was no one viable to take them.
There was no plan to limit them any more than they ever have since he has been a Patriot, which is where you misrepresent the comments.

Finnishfan

There are many valid explanations for him to see less playing time, most of them which you have already presented. But most theories I have read from that week 1 game was that the real issue was that Brady didn't look his way when he was on the field.

However, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I do not think that BB is trying to prepare the team for a Welkerless era, becouse that is not how he does things. No idea in creating and implementing a gameplan without Welker when he still is on our payroll for one more SB run. BB has always been about "the next game", not "the game after next game".

Its not about restricting his stats to reduce his value, its not about letting Edelman "learn the trade" nor is it about creating a Welkerless offense.

I think the reason for us to ignore Welker in our week 1 gameplan was that MCD wanted to send a message that we can play effective offense without featuring #83 so heavily. He wanted to create a gameplan that didn't revolve around Welker converting key 3rd downs and being TBs security blanket. We dont wanna cut Welker away from our plan, but we wanna have other options as well if "plan W" fails.

Dependency on Welkers heavy involvement has been one of our weaknesses for years. Brady has to be able to get along without Welker. The offense will not be as effective, but he has to be able to keep the chains moving even without #83.

Deus Irae

You've been misrepresenting about this on thread after thread, and you've done the same sort of misrepresentation about the Cardinals game by tallying the Welker snap count while ignoring the loss of Hernandez in the process. You've been called out on it time and again. You keep posting the same misleading arguments.

I'll leave it at this:

When you take a snap count down from 90% and deliberately knock it down to 60%-70%, the player is, despite your claims to the contrary, "being taken out of the offense.".

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

AndyJohnson

So you think that fact is what you think would have happened if Hernandez wasn't injured? That is an interesting definition of fact.
Also, your final comment would certainly be true, of course that is not what happened.
"Called on it time again" has been solely by you, who in this case happen to be very wrong.

PatsBoy12

Put your best players on the field and let them play. Enough with the multiple personnel crap. We all liked the idea and thought it would be great at confusing the defenses we play, but it seems to have only confused our own team. Put the best guys on the field and let them play.

mcsully

Not going to argue with giving welker a breather but if we plan to part with him, run him to the ground..

AndyJohnson

Understood, but still need to save him for the post season. Fine line there.

BradyFTW!

It's especially funny because we've been watching Belichick at work for over a decade now, and there's literally nothing in his track record to indicate that he would do what he's being accused of. Go figure.