MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
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BEST
Warren, then Sanders and Hawkins.
We would have exactly zero chance at the SB without their contributions.
I cannot underestimate (for yet another year) how well our backup defensive backs have played. NO SECONDARY allowed fewer touchdown passes. Only ONE team allowed fewer points. We did this with THREE defensive backfeild starters out for most of the season.
Kudos also to Chad Scott and Baker. Finally, kudos to Hobbs and Bruschi who played with casts to play their part on one of the top three defenses in the league.
Maybe Hobbs has only the talent to be a nickel back. That's no criticism. That makes his performance as a starter even more outstanding. An injured nickel back, playing with a cast, was part of one the best performing secondaries in the league, this with backup safties helping them deep.
And BTW, Brady had a fine year. In the end, upon further review and reflection on the season and the playoffs, his wide receivers were just plain aweful.
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WORST
Gabriel, Gaffney and Caldwell.
We'd be in the SB if we had the jets receivers or the receivers from at least a dozen other teams. The number would be higher, but we can't compare to running teams, who have relatively few recievers. ALL the receivers had plenty of time with Brady by the time the playoffs came around.
I am tempted to say that Gaffney and Caldwell played up to their ability and beyond, so perhaps they could be considered to have had a solid year. But that is NOT the standard. Their receiving was terrible this year. We all watched hundreds of games and highlights this year. Receivers all over the league caught imperfect passes for big yardage and touchdowns. Not our jags! Dozens were more reliable. In the end, we had a set of jags, a gutsy star who almost retired, and an injured rookie.
I give Jackson a pass. Actually, he looked pretty good for a rookie WR. When we factor in his injuries, he was fine. We needed much more from him. We really needed an immediate starter. That's not his fault. He was brought in to contribute in his second year, and start in his second or third, and he will likely still do that, UNLESS HIS INJURIES affect his total career.
Brown didn't have much of a year, but what should we expect from someone that would have retired if we didn't have the worst receivers of any decent NFL team (and worse than some college teams) and the worst patriot receiving corps in the Brady era. Who's kidding who? Patten was head and shoulders better than anything we had this year. Brown was Brown. He did great in key situations, and we are all glad he was here, and he may have had THE PLAY of the year.
Childress was a no show yet again.
Kight was a fine STer and worthy of the last receiver spot.
BTW, I personally think that Watson had a fine season. The stats are real. He was a major contributer at the wide receiver position. HIs performance compares with the performance of our #1 and #2 receivers. That's pretty good for a TE.
I'm not criticizing Brady, Josh, bb or Pioli for the play of the receivers. They got the best they could get out of what we had. In the end, it was almost enough to get us to the SB. THE DRIVE ended at a bit over 3 minutes left with us giving up and kicking a field goal, instead of counting on our receivers with two tries for 11 yards. I personally believe that if any one of FIFTY receivers from other teams were on the field healthy, the best QB in NFL playoff history would have tried two passes to try to get the first down. Maybe it was all Josh. Somehow, I doubt it.
Josh was among the worst second half coordinators in the league, but in crunch time, it is Brady who calls (or vetos) the plays, and Brady did what he thought was best to try to win the game. He asked the defense to bail the offense out one more time. Sadly, as I relect, perhaps Brady was right. Perhaps counting on one last stand from one of the top three defenses in the league was a better idea than counting on the worst set of receivers in the league. Heck, I think that he might have passed if Faulk were healthy at the end of the game.
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