Hello, gentlemen and ladies. I'm a lifelong Bengals fan who now lives in Boston and roots for the home team (civic duty, at least when they don't play the Bengals). Thought I'd give my 2 pence here.
I must admit, I feel a bit sorry for Ocho. He thought he was going to heaven; instead, he was going into a no-win situation, with a large contract (and attached expectations), a QB who is notorious for deciding which targets he likes and which he doesn't, an offense with a lot of established weapons, and almost no practice/learning time on the offense. How exactly was he going to live up to expectations? Catch 10 passes a game? Never going to happen. Not with Welker/Gronk/Hernandez out there. He's better than Branch, even at this point in his career, but Brady's comfort level with Branch means that Branch is just going to see a lot more balls. Ocho was set up to fail.
Here's the scouting report on Ocho, by the way, after almost a decade of watching him: Very hard worker. Can make fantastic catches along the sideline, and one of the cleanest route runners in football. Deceptive speed. Prone to boneheaded penalties when not in the flow of the game. Occasionally (like TO) drops easy passes. Will freelance routes and get his QB into trouble. Excels when he sees a lot of passes thrown his way - when he's the focal point, he can take over a game. Known to disappear in big games. Sound like the guy the Pats traded for?
Ocho was, from the very beginning, an awful fit for what the Pats are trying to do here. But honestly, gentlemen, he's not the reason the Pats are losing. That defense is appalling. It reminds me of watching mid-90s Bengal defenses, and that is NOT a good thing.