Most pleasant surprise Patriot of 2010

Lawfirm for me, didn't expect him to be anywhere close to the top of the depth chart. Hell I thought he would be a gameday inactive for most games.

1100 yards and 16 TDs from rookie TEs......only what mccourty did comes close

I said Woodhead, thinking LawFirm was a close second. All the rest but the Branch trade were players I expected to at least be mediocre/decent - particularly the TE combo (which I expected to be awesome, I was on the Gronkowski train coming out of the Combine, was so psyched that he was drafted).

When they acquired Woodhead, I would have laughed if you told me that he would even be on a NFL roster at the end of the season.

McCourty definitely exceeded expectations, but First Round picks are supposed to perform, so I won't call him my "most pleasant surprise." Gronk and Hernandez were also both highly touted coming into the season.

So, the "most pleasant surprise" award definitely belongs either to the two guys who weren't with the team in week 1, Woodhead or Branch, or to a rookie punter who is now clearly one of the best in the league, Mesko, or to a "solid" runner who turned in a 1,000 yard season, BJGE.

If you force me to pick one of the four, I'd say Woodhead since Branch was a known commodity and his game impact is clearer than Mesko's, even though we now have an awesome punter. The Law Firm was amazing, but he was already known and liked before the season, so not as great a "surprise."

How about a little consideration for Eric Moore? Ha, I know nowhere near as impactful as the others, but to me he seems like another typical Pats player that might help you guys for years to come. Doesn't he have 2 sacks and 2 FFs in very limited action??? Pretty nice if I do say so myself.

I'm underwhelmed by Mesko. he has had a few good moments but for a 6th rd pick you'd hope that he would be one of the best in the league, and I'm not sure that he is.

"Other" votes:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Cunningham. For having missed most of camp and all of preseason, I was half expecting a red shirt year, or at best, marginal contributions. For this kid to have snatched the position from established vet TBC is a huge surprise to me, and I think his value is under appreciated. I think if you asked Mayo and Chung who their most pleasant surprise is they'd tell you its the rookie OLB setting the edge on the weak side and directing the running back into their waiting arms.

How about Ron Brace? Maybe he didn't have the impact as the other nominees, but came up with a few big plays and was solid against the run, which is more than I was expecting after a disappointing rookie season.

Finally, I give thanks to Julian Edelman that Welker no longer needs to return punts. 2nd in the league in average return yards (behind only Devin Hester) amongst starting punt returners (determined by at least 15 returns, or at least one punt return/game). Pleasant surprise.

Honestly, I think it's safe to say that the team itself is the most pleasant surprise

Early in preseason, back when everyone was talking about how this team wasn't going to be so hot, I was asked what I thought about it. I said that it was a team with a ton of question marks - guys/things/situations that could be really good, but might not pan out (like the TEs, who I thought were going to be good, but they were rookies). If most of those question marks were answered positively, the pats would be really good. If most were negatives, they'd be the 6-10 team that some thought they'd be. Most likely they'd be a mixed bag and probably eek into the playoffs.

Because of those question marks, and because of how rough that interior chunk of the schedule was, it was real hard to believe that this team would end up the way they did ... so hey, that's the most pleasant surprise to me

I voted TEs. It's been so long (since Coates!) that we've had such great production from that position. How many others thought "here we go again, wasting draft picks on TEs" when Gronk and Hernandez were drafted? How many others thought, upon the signing of Alge,"here we go again, picking up another old, slow, washed up vet who won't bring anything to the table?" what a great surprise it's been!

PatsDeb said:

I voted TEs. It's been so long (since Coates!) that we've had such great production from that position. How many others thought "here we go again, wasting draft picks on TEs" when Gronk and Hernandez were drafted? How many others thought, upon the signing of Alge,"here we go again, picking up another old, slow, washed up vet who won't bring anything to the table?" what a great surprise it's been!

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I'm not sure that many people in here had that reaction to Hernandez and Gronkowski. I sure as hell didn't. I loved both selections, especially Hernandez.

1. McCourty
2. Branch
3. Woodhead

Incredible that lawfirm might only be 5th or 6th. That kind of year. Woody's year was nice, but not tops. He could have had a lesser year abd the team still functions.

McCourty was phenomenal, but he was our 1st round pick.

It has to be Arrington. At a position where one mistake means a crucial touchdown, the guy was awesome.

I'm not judging him against the best, I'm judging him against the black hole we had when Butler struggled.

This guy didn't even exist, he was a special teams only player who never would have made the team otherwise. BB invented him. Like Dr. Frankenstein. Is there any evidence anywhere that this guy was ready to even back up at CB?

What's really interesting from this list is that you have four players (BJGE, Arrington, Ninkovich, Connolly) who many that would not make the roster; four that we were warned would not contribute because Belichick rarely plays rookies; and two (Woodhead, Branch) who were brought in after being deemed not worthy of playing time elsewhere.

There's no wrong answer for that question from this group.

got to go with McCourty. Woodhead came out of nowhere but McCourty was the rock that the defense sorely needed. He went beyond all expectations.

Devin McCourty, being all pro as a rookie is a big one....BJGE geting 1000 yerds is cool to but for me it's the rookie TE's

Rob Gronkowski, and Aaron Hernandez, have 87 rec 1109 yerds and 16 TD's they have helped Brady, take the passing game to the next level

PatsDeb said:

I voted TEs. It's been so long (since Coates!) that we've had such great production from that position. How many others thought "here we go again, wasting draft picks on TEs" when Gronk and Hernandez were drafted? How many others thought, upon the signing of Alge,"here we go again, picking up another old, slow, washed up vet who won't bring anything to the table?" what a great surprise it's been!

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Not me. I was high on Gronkowski before the draft. I wasn't super familiar w/ Hernandez, but it was clear the main issue with him was off the field - if he kept his nose clean, he'd be good in the receiver type TE role. Granted, I figured Crump was nothing more than a blocker at this point, so yes, it was good to see he still had some moves. Did the TE corps exceed my expectations? Sure it did ... but I already had high expectations in the first place.

patsfan-1982 said:

Devin McCourty, being all pro as a rookie is a big one....BJGE geting 1000 yerds is cool to but for me it's the rookie TE's

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Pro bowl and all pro aren't the same thing

Mc Courty took my vote

As McCourty has gotten better each week, it seems that BB is starting to use him similar to what he did with Law. McCourty holds down one side of the field by himself and then BB uses the safeties and LBers to help Arrington and cover more of the underneath stuff.

This is a huge responsibility to a rookie and he has more than shown he can handle it.

BlueString94 said:

Branch by far! You guys forgetting those awesome times of Brady Branch? Yea, they didn't give the razzle dazzle of Brady Moss, but Branch shattered teams in the clutch. Remember SB 39, where he tied Jerry Rice(!)'s record for catches? Or this year against the Ravens where he moved the chains in overtime straight to the victory?

And yea, Woodhead's pretty good too

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I believe the Patriots are 48-6 in the last 3 seasons Branch has played for the Patriots. Actually this is a bit off, they only have 5 losses since he wasn't with the team this year for the Jets loss.

Before voting or looking at any posts in this thread... Mcourty better be winning this in a LANDSLIDE. If he isn't I may need to look for a different fan site out of embarassment.