Right On Schedule, Brady's WR Starters Emerge

Right On Schedule, Brady's WR Starters Emerge
By: Steve Balestrieri

Brady didn't shy away, "It's a process", he said. Adding, "by mid-training camp we should know who I am most comfortable throwing to."...

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It seems to me that Belichick has never failed in rebuilding a certain squad on the team, when it is his entire focus of attention.

The secondary needs 10-12 ball players to rebuild, and that has to be a multi-year undertaking, and it has been. But he rebuilt the TEs in a single year as well as the RBs, and the O-line took a couple of drafts to find the bookend tackles, but everything else fell into place after that, in a single year.

This year he aimed at the WRs, because he knew the veteran patches and Shadow Roster pieces were worn out.

He is succeeding spectacularly. Why is everyone surprised??

Have contended all along that this team has been and is being rebuilt right before our eyes, and they have not skipped a beat...

Not too many franchises can do this in the salary cap era, maybe none??

AzPatsFan said:

It seems to me that Belichick has never failed in rebuilding a certain squad on the team, when it is his entire focus of attention.

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It depends on the time frame you're using and how you're trying to define "entire focus", I guess.

LB
DE
DB
TE

All the above either took several years or are still not fixed. The WR position has been a failed rebuild since 2009.

Deus Irae said:

It depends on the time frame you're using and how you're trying to define "entire focus", I guess.

LB
DE
DB
TE

All the above either took several years or are still not fixed. The WR position has been a failed rebuild since 2009.

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I agree that the WR position has been a fail since 09. (Relying on an old Deion Branch as a #2 for 2010-2011, Ochocinco, Lloyd to an extent)

Is it fair to consider drafting two late 3rd round WRs in back to back years a "failed" rebuild though?

patsinthesnow said:

I agree that the WR position has been a fail since 09. (Relying on an old Deion Branch as a #2 for 2010-2011, Ochocinco, Lloyd to an extent)

Is it fair to consider drafting two late 3rd round WRs in back to back years a "failed" rebuild though?

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Given that drafting two late 3rd round WRs was not all that was done in an attempt to fix the position... absolutely.

Deus Irae said:

It depends on the time frame you're using and how you're trying to define "entire focus", I guess.

LB
DE
DB
TE

All the above either took several years or are still not fixed. The WR position has been a failed rebuild since 2009.

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Good point. The process of keepin' a team up to snuff is never endin'. Regardless, Belichick and Co. do an exemplary job.

Deus Irae said:

Given that drafting two late 3rd round WRs was not all that was done in an attempt to fix the position... absolutely.

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Woops, you ment FA too, my bad.

Not to play the devils advocate here, but training camp and two possessions of a preseason game, does not make a job well done. I have all the confidence of a fan that it may be a good year. But time will be the final judge on these three WR's. It's very hard to draft even one good receiver, so what would be the odds on getting three of them?

Yes it's been quite amazing to see our team contend year after year while swapping out and/or re-building entire position sets year after year - in the proper order too.

BB does not get enough credit in this regard IMO.

AzPatsFan said:

It seems to me that Belichick has never failed in rebuilding a certain squad on the team, when it is his entire focus of attention.

The secondary needs 10-12 ball players to rebuild, and that has to be a multi-year undertaking, and it has been. But he rebuilt the TEs in a single year as well as the RBs, and the O-line took a couple of drafts to find the bookend tackles, but everything else fell into place after that, in a single year.

This year he aimed at the WRs, because he knew the veteran patches and Shadow Roster pieces were worn out.

He is succeeding spectacularly. Why is everyone surprised??

Click to expand...

It depends on how you define failure, as well as 'entire focus of attention'. He overdrafted and/or outright missed on tight ends for nearly a decade before he nailed it with Gronk and Hernandez. From 2007 (when Seymour left) to the present, he's been extremely hit or miss on drafting defensive linemen to replace the talent of the guys who are gone, and to date hasn't succeeded. His track record drafting safeties post-Wilson has been pretty bad. Whiffed on Chung, Meriweather significantly underperformed his draft position, Wilson has been bad. Hopefully Harmon will reverse the trend, because to date the only pick who's really worked out was McCourty, and he was drafted to play corner.

Speaking of corner, that's been a mixed bag as well. Dennard looks like a great pick, and McCourty's definitely a hit in my book, but prior to that there were a whole lot of misses.

That's not to undersell how great the Pats have been at re-stocking the depth chart at OT, RB, TE, and hopefully linebacker. But to say that they're batting 1.000 in these situations is simply wrong. This is classic confirmation bias at work; you're remembering the instances that validate what you're saying, but you're forgetting how many years of misses went before those hits, as well as the instances where the hits still have yet to happen.

Even where they do hit, sometimes it takes a long time and a lot of misses, If the WR retooling project plays out at all like it did at safety, TE, cornerback, or DT, then we're in for a few more years of misses before eventually landing on the right guys. Luckily for the fans, all indications so far suggest that this rebuilding project looks more like the OT or RB projects, where the players drafted to fill the void pretty much succeeded in bulk on the first attempt.

Patstopia said:

Not to play the devils advocate here, but training camp and two possessions of a preseason game, does not make a job well done. I have all the confidence of a fan that it may be a good year. But time will be the final judge on these three WR's. It's very hard to draft even one good receiver, so what would be the odds on getting three of them?

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Good point about the time frame we're looking at here. It's certainly a better start than some other rookie WRs have had in the past (Price, Jackson, Tate, Johnson, etc.) but it's still early. And they drafted Dobson and Boyce as Thompkins was and UDFA.

Personally, Thompkins looks like the real thing to me. I'm not saying he's going to be a star but someone who can at least play WR successfully for the Patriots. I'm not fully sold on Dobson yet but I have high hopes. As for Boyce, I don't know what to make of him yet. Have to see a bit more. But it'll be fun to watch them, hopefully, progress and see where they're at when the chips are down come November, December and January.

Can we keep this thread about the current WRs / TEs and not about BB's ability as a GM? We've talked enough about BB the GM on this board.

The starters are not yet set in stone. Right now we have:

1. Amendola
2. Thompkins
3. Dobson
4. Boyce
5. Edelman

It would not surprise me if Dobson and Thompkins have switched places by the end of camp. It also wouldn't surprise me if Dobson and Boyce switch places by the end of camp. However I have a tough time seeing Boyce leap frog both Dobson and Thompkins.

The more intriguing question to me is what happens when Gronk returns? Has Suds shown enough that the 2 TE set becomes our primary formation? Or do we stick with 1 TE and 3 WRs? And if we do go to a 2 TE set as our primary formation is Dobson a better fit than Thompkins?

Good problem to have and time will tell. I predict Suds will end up with more snaps than any of the rookie WR's.

I have very high hopes for this wide receiving core. With so many young receivers on the team if they perform this year, we should be set at wr for the extended future.

If the Pats can move the ball early in the year, their offense will be down right unstoppable when Gronk comes back healthy.

I cannot ever recall a group of rookie WRs getting so much buzz.

dales804 said:

Good point about the time frame we're looking at here. It's certainly a better start than some other rookie WRs have had in the past (Price, Jackson, Tate, Johnson, etc.) but it's still early. And they drafted Dobson and Boyce as Thompkins was and UDFA.

Personally, Thompkins looks like the real thing to me. I'm not saying he's going to be a star but someone who can at least play WR successfully for the Patriots. I'm not fully sold on Dobson yet but I have high hopes. As for Boyce, I don't know what to make of him yet. Have to see a bit more. But it'll be fun to watch them, hopefully, progress and see where they're at when the chips are down come November, December and January.

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I'm with you on all three evaluations. Thompkins may have the lowest ceiling of the three, but he's playing at the highest level right now, and that matters a whole lot. When you're talking about young guys, people fall in love with ceiling way too much, seemingly forgetting that most players never reach theirs. Whatever Thompkins' ceiling is, he's a good player right now, and that's something that you should gladly trade a good deal of ceiling for. I believe that he can become a legitimate starter in the NFL.

Dobson has the highest ceiling, but he needs to be more physical, run better routes, and improve his hands a bit in order to reach that ceiling. I think he'll be good enough to contribute this year, but at the moment Thompkins looks like the more polished player.

Boyce is the wildcard, for me. Seems like he only has one real weakness in his game, but unfortunately it's a really important one. He's great at getting open, but needs to get a lot better at catching the ball. Of the three, he's the one with the highest odds of amounting to nothing, IMO, but at the same time his ceiling is also pretty high.

pdangle said:

Yes it's been quite amazing to see our team contend year after year while swapping out and/or re-building entire position sets year after year - in the proper order too.

BB does not get enough credit in this regard IMO.

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Don't tell me the odds!! LOL

I choose to remain guardedly optimistic. So far the receivers that the Pats have picked have turned out better than we could have reasonably expected. I'm sure there will be some growing pains with such young guys but hopefully they will perform well enough for the Pats to be strongly competitive.

It is also helpful to note that the Pats still retain one of the strongest OLs in the NFL and it has a lot of continuity going for it. In addition we have a blossoming RB group with Ridley spearheading it, followed by talented guys like Vereen, Blount, Bolden, and Washington. That running game exploded all over the Eagles and will help a lot to take pressure off the passing game.

Honestly at this point, I am fairly bullish about the Pats 2013 offense. I still remain more worried if our defense can put it all together.

Deus Irae said:

It depends on the time frame you're using and how you're trying to define "entire focus", I guess.

LB
DE
DB
TE

All the above either took several years or are still not fixed. The WR position has been a failed rebuild since 2009.

Click to expand...

TE- drafted the best TE in football and a (once was) top 5 tight end in the same draft.. 1 year. Dont know how you can claim it took several years.

Seeing as how, since 2009, we've drafted 2 late 3rd round WRs, traded a 5th and 6th for Ocho, 2 7th rounders for Edelman and Ebert, signed Lloyd on the super cheap and a bunch of UFA JAGs, I dont think we've really attempted a full rebuild. We barely divested any assets in that area until this year. And a 2nd and a 4th isnt even that much... look what the Falcons gave up to get Julio.

It sure seems like consensus has been reached on who makes the team as wide receiver.

Assuming nothing upsets the apple cart for the consensus receivers to make the team, what of Aikens and Sims? Assuming they are both available (and I am assuming Aikens is eligible) is there a front runner for the practice squad? Does either posses special teams ability? Like what I have read about Sims lately.

better than the odds before the draft