Welcome to the New England Patriots, Marshall WR Aaron Dobson

KontradictioN said:

He's raw, but he's pretty much exactly what we needed at the position. Tall, fast, physical WR that specializes outside the hashes, but is willing to go underneath or over the middle. He also presents a big target in the red area as well. He just needs to fine tune his route running a little bit. His Wonderlic was a bit on the low side as well, but it wasn't low enough to give Pats fans reasons to panic. He wasn't in my top three of WR's available, but he was what I (and many others) have been calling for since the close of the AFCCG. The Pats should now target Patton or Swope to pair with him and they will hopefully fill out the WR position. FWIW, even with those two selections, I'm also a fan of bringing Lloyd back.

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I see this kid as being what we hoped to get in Lloyd but more. Faster, bigger, great hands and great reach and target range. The clips I watched impressed me as he took balls away from defenders. When did we last see a Pats WR actually take a ball away from a DB or safety? 2007?

Another Red Zone option, sorely needed.

zipster9 said:

Chad Jackson, 6'1", and ran a 4.37 (40) and projected 1st/2nd round. We know what happened afterwards...

I am surprised that Patriots didn't get a "safe bet", like Robert Woods.

Hopefully, Patriots give Dobson the playbook early and let him JEL with No. 12.

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For every guy that was supposed to be a hit you can find a bust.

Hopefully the risk comes with reward this time. The upside is there. Lets hope the kid has the work ethic and smarts to fit.

zipster9 said:

I would not put too much on Wonderlic numbers, in general.

If Dobson can learn and is smart, he should be fine. I wonder who will help develop him? I mean, our WR coaches are not necessarily the best teachers....

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I thought that they brought back Daboll to the coaching staff to help out with the WRs.

mgteich said:

Giving Dobson the playbook is not enough. He'll need a personal tutor. His Wonderlic is under 20. Besides, expecting a lot from a rookie quarterback is not reasonable unless we are talking about a top 10 stud (even they often take a year to develop).

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Possibly - but the upside of being "raw" is that he doesn't need to un-learn a different system

That may have worked in his favor with Belichcik and McDaniels

I agree though - don't expect too much from any rookie - and don't expect him to replicate Lloyd's number of catches or yards.

I'd be ecstatic with 35-40 catches if he averaged some big pickups... maybe 750 yards for the season... Far short of Lloyd's quantity but much higher in quality

I think we'll see some contributions from our rookie WRs. I wouldn't be surprised to see 40+ catches for each. They are both smart, BB praised Dobson's intelligence and Boyce had the 2nd highest WR wonderlic.

scott99 said:

I think we'll see some contributions from our rookie WRs. I wouldn't be surprised to see 40+ catches for each. They are both smart, BB praised Dobson's intelligence and Boyce had the 2nd highest WR wonderlic.

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Hopefully, we don't need to see Branch, Stallworth, anymore...

I didn't see it, but you are correct.

Patriots bringing back former wide receivers coach Daboll, ex-Chiefs offensive coordinator | Patriots Blog | providencejournal.com | The Providence Journal

DefenseRules said:

I thought that they brought back Daboll to the coaching staff to help out with the WRs.

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sooner or later they are going to hit on a WR..i hope it's Dobson. Can't wait to see him play

Greetings from Herdland!

Would like to start off by saying that I am a Marshall fan, but over the years have become a Pats fan too with the organization bringing in Brown, Moss, Hanson, etc. Really glad another Marshall player gets to be with the great organization.

I thought I would share some information with you all since I have gotten to watch him play since his junior year of high school. I first watched him play in a basketball game where he “Vince Cartered” a 6’8 kid and literally jumping over and dunking on him.

While at Marshall

His first three seasons he had subpar QB play. Last season our QB Rakeem Cato was Conference USA player of the year, but he had trouble throwing the deep ball (which is Dobsons specialty).
At the beginning of Dobson’s career, he had a problem being consistent catching the ball and had the nickname of “Dropson.” Regardless of what has been published, he did have drops last year. Just off the top of my head one against WVU, one against Purdue that went for a TD, one against Tulsa that went for a TD, and a few against UCF.

He seemed to always have hamstring, quad, or leg issues all throughout his career at Marshall, might be a conditioning problem. He would take himself out of plays after deep routes many times.

Now for the positives

Our offense limited his routes, so he has the potential of being groomed for more than deep routes.
In saying that, deep routes are his specialty and I have not seen a player since Moss that could find the ball and position his body to get the ball.
When he is focused, he has some of the best hands around.
Last season he was the fastest player on the team, running a hand time of 4.31 in the forty.
Overall, he is a great person that takes pride in the state of WV, and should never see him in trouble off the field.

Love the pick for the Patriots and if any coach could get the potential that comes from Dobson, it would coach Bill Belichick and staff.

Hope this information helps. GO HERD and GO PATS!

scott99 said:

I think we'll see some contributions from our rookie WRs. I wouldn't be surprised to see 40+ catches for each. They are both smart, BB praised Dobson's intelligence and Boyce had the 2nd highest WR wonderlic.

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We HAVE to see contributions from these WRs...or we are screwed. Look at our roster besides them...Amendola and Edelman. I don't see Jenkins making it past camp.

Brady_to_Moss said:

We HAVE to see contributions from these WRs...or we are screwed. Look at our roster besides them...Amendola and Edelman. I don't see Jenkins making it past camp.

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That's the only thing I don't like, will they contribute is the only question. Hopefully Dobson can.

Archeryaddict12 said:

That's the only thing I don't like, will they contribute is the only question. Hopefully Dobson can.

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That's generally the question most new players entering the NFL are faced with. I have every confidence that Dobson and Boyce will be given the opportunity to see playing time and show why they were drafted. Realistically, I'm pleased the Patriots double dipped at Receiver and with a combination of players with size or speed. It was needed.

ausbacker said:

That's generally the question most new players entering the NFL are faced with. I have every confidence that Dobson and Boyce will be given the opportunity to see playing time and show why they were drafted. Realistically, I'm pleased the Patriots double dipped at Receiver and with a combination of players with size or speed. It was needed.

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Gronkowski and Hernandez had over 90 catches between them as rookies, there is no reason to believe Dobson and Boyce can't get at least 80. Boyce is really smart, 2nd highest wonderlic amongst WR's and has already graduated college. And BB kept saying how smart Dobson is. I think these two will add to the highest scoring offense in the NFL (I think they will lead the league once again). Add Amendola, Ballard and the two rookies, and take away Welker and Lloyd.

Man if he can be our Demaryius Thomas, just a tad slower but similar build I'll be ecstatic. I think if he is the real deal and can give us 600-700 yards and 6 tds that'll be just dandy. Then in the playoffs if he can just stretch the field for Gronk and be a secondary red zone threat our offense should be much harder to defend.

Let's hope we get some confidence in our running game in close game situations, something we lacked last year when the chips were down. Offense might finally be "complete" if this guy is a hit.

scott99 said:

Gronkowski and Hernandez had over 90 catches between them as rookies, there is no reason to believe Dobson and Boyce can't get at least 80. Boyce is really smart, 2nd highest wonderlic amongst WR's and has already graduated college. And BB kept saying how smart Dobson is. I think these two will add to the highest scoring offense in the NFL (I think they will lead the league once again). Add Amendola, Ballard and the two rookies, and take away Welker and Lloyd.

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I know I'm being a little selfish, but I wouldn't mind Lloyd being brought back at a team friendly price as insurance. That said, I'm reasonably confident that a core group of Amendola, Dobson, Edelman and Boyce may provide some teams headaches given they average a 4.48 40 yard dash time. Combined with our mismatch targets (as you point out), that's awfully encouraging given the speed at which Tom Brady diagnoses a mismatch and releases the ball.

I like the size. Much needed and what I was hoping for. 0 drops is nice too. But....that's about it. I'll believe it when I see it.

I guess the one good thing about Gronk/hernandez being limited is brady should get some meaningful reps with these guys and get them up to speed

and from the looks of it, Dobson is going to be our starting X receiver..so he should get his fair share of targets

if we can get a Gronk/hernandez rookie season production from Dobson that would be great..and thats really what we need from that x receiver

something like 500-600yards 4-6TD's

RIpats88 said:

I guess the one good thing about Gronk/hernandez being limited is brady should get some meaningful reps with these guys and get them up to speed

and from the looks of it, Dobson is going to be our starting X receiver..so he should get his fair share of targets

if we can get a Gronk/hernandez rookie season production from Dobson that would be great..and thats really what we need from that x receiver

something like 500-600yards 4-6TD's

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That's great and all for Mr. X but I still want to know...who's going to be our #1 wideout? Yeah...

As far as production, there's no way he's going to get anywhere near the production that Gronk and Hernandez got during their rookie years, not just because he's not playing a tight end role, but simply because Gronk and Hernandez are going to be out there(hopefully ALL season long).

Unless we plan on changing our O again, I don't see it.

Edit: I went back and reviewed videos of Dobson, to see if maybe I'm judging him too harsh probably due to me being so frustrated with our WR situation for the past few years. I definitely see potential in his ability to make the tough catch. For a guy his size to be that acrobatic, it's pretty impressive. With Brady throwing to him, he hopefully won't have to do much of that, but it's really what we were missing on the occasion when Tom decides to make a bad throw or force something into very tight coverage. He fights for the ball and has turned a few very ugly throws into golden catches. I'm feeling a bit more optimistic now.

Well the main thing I worry about Dobson is the level of competition he faced. I mean Marshall doesn't exactly face SEC level competition. How well he adjust to the pro level?

BUT just take a look at his videos. Here's an example:
Aaron Dobson Career Highlights - YouTube

As far as size, athleticism goes. This dude can GO UP and get the ball. He uses his body well and plays big against smaller DBs. Dunno if he was just dominating weaker competition but he plays every bit like a 6'3 receiver. And that last catch on that highlight reel. He just STOLE that TD in the redzone. I'm not sure I've seen a catch like that from a Pats receiver yet.

Moss over Revis comes close, but that was a 'beat the guy over the top' move.

Randy Moss one handed catch over Darrelle Revis - YouTube

Dobson was covered closely on his play but just ripped a sick TD anyways with one hand.

Better video quality here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH3ZNz6FLAc

VJCPatriot said:

Well the main thing I worry about Dobson is the level of competition he faced. I mean Marshall doesn't exactly face SEC level competition. How well he adjust to the pro level?

BUT just take a look at his videos. Here's an example:
Aaron Dobson Career Highlights - YouTube

As far as size, athleticism goes. This dude can GO UP and get the ball. He uses his body well and plays big against smaller DBs. Dunno if he was just dominating weaker competition but he plays every bit like a 6'3 receiver. And that last catch on that highlight reel. He just STOLE that TD in the redzone. I'm not sure I've seen a catch like that from a Pats receiver yet.

Moss over Revis comes close, but that was a 'beat the guy over the top' move.

Randy Moss one handed catch over Darrelle Revis - YouTube

Dobson was covered closely on his play but just ripped a sick TD anyways with one hand.

Better video quality here:
Ultimate Aaron Dobson Highlights (NFL Draft 2013 - 59th Pick // New England Patriots) - YouTube

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Yeah seeing that catch and a few others before that in tight coverage really made me go hmm....wait a second. Pretty impressive.

I expect that kind of stuff from shorter receivers like Steve Smith, but you rarely see your tall, lanky receivers, go up and fight for the ball to make acrobatic catches that. They're usually too accustomed to using their size to catch it clean and not that flexible.

Good point on the weak competition but the potential is there.