Dobson travels with team, expected to make debut

farn said:

Question for people following the team pre-Super Bowl wins... or anyone in the know :

How many Patriots have started slow to one day contribute in a major way ? Recently, other than a few exceptions, those that have become contributors have shown flashes early.

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Ben Watson and Brandon Meriweather both contributed nothing as rookies, and ended up being multi-year starters on some very good teams. Vereen did pretty much nothing as a rookie.

It really depends on how you look at Dobson's season last year. If you consider that to be starting slow, then there's lots of examples of guys with similar production that ended up being really good for us.

SeanBruschi54 said:

What do you mean? Patriot players or league in general? Adam Vinatieri, Troy Brown, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Julian Edelman, Matt Slater.

All pop instantly to mind.

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Julian Edelman actually had a pretty good rookie season.

farn said:

Question for people following the team pre-Super Bowl wins... or anyone in the know :

How many Patriots have started slow to one day contribute in a major way ? Recently, other than a few exceptions, those that have become contributors have shown flashes early.

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In addition to those already mentioned, Connolly, Neal, Wendell, Givens, BJGE, Arrington, Warren, Faulk, and Brady all did very little in their respective first year as a Patriot before ultimately starting.

Does this question imply that Dobson didn't do much? Because he was very productive for a rookie WR, based on historic comparables.

I think Dobs runs a few plays just to work out the cobwebs for the start of the season not a major portion of the game.

Pats-Phan said:

Potentially Jamie Collins depending on how his career plays out from here. He was an invisible man the first 12 (estimating) weeks last season. I was getting worried about him.

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He was a rookie being eased into the defense

Wonder how much playing time he will see. Now all that's left to see is Easley...Hopefully week 1.

rochrist said:

Julian Edelman actually had a pretty good rookie season.

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I thought he had a VERY good rookie season. And in that awful playoff game against Baltimore, it seemed like he and Faulk were the ones trying to will the team back into the game IIRC. Then he just kind of disappeared for a few years (injuries, depth chart, whatever).

Mosi Tatupu....I was one of Mosi's Mooses!!!

Marv Cook & Ben Coates did very little their rookie seasons and turned out to be Pro Bowlers in time.

This year Brady has a ton of options. I remember in 2011 it was basically the Hernandez/Gronk/Welker show. That was fine but it was a bit limiting.

This year you have for pass catching options...

RB - Vereen White
WR - Edelman Amendola Lafell Dobson Thompkins Tyms* (if he makes it)
TE - Gronk Wright

If you count Develin as well however he fits in that is 10-11 guys.

Honestly I am very curious to see how things play out cause you know some guys are going to be targeted more than others. Personally I just think Brady will probably favor

Edelman/Gronk/Vereen/Thompkins/Dobson/Amendola in that order for pure targets when all are in.

He seems to be overall more comfortable with those guys. Wright might gain his trust and White will see some targets when Vereen is given a rest. I think Lafell probably lost some of Brady's trust in that 3rd game. Brady's body language was not good and he has other guys he can go to. I think Lafell might have to earn that back.

Dobson has not seen many passes from Brady I know but I think once he is on the feild he will find some targets due to him being the only deep target really.

Brady does seem to like Amendola this year but his logic I think is why go to Amendola when you can go to Edelman?

BobDigital said:

This year Brady has a ton of options. I remember in 2011 it was basically the Hernandez/Gronk/Welker show. That was fine but it was a bit limiting.

This year you have for pass catching options...

RB - Vereen White
WR - Edelman Amendola Lafell Dobson Thompkins Tyms* (if he makes it)
TE - Gronk Wright

If you count Develin as well however he fits in that is 10-11 guys.

Honestly I am very curious to see how things play out cause you know some guys are going to be targeted more than others. Personally I just think Brady will probably favor Edelman/Gronk/Thompkins/Dobson/Vereen/Amendola.

He seems to be overall more comfortable with those guys. Wright might gain his trust and White will see some targets when Vereen is given a rest. I think Lafell probably lost some of Brady's trust in that 3rd game. Brady's body language was not good and he has other guys he can go to. I think Lafell might have to earn that back.

Dobson has not seen many passes from Brady I know but I think once he is on the feild he will find some targets due to him being the only deep target really.

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Dobson really was getting in sync IMO with Tom before he was Injured, and I think he will gain that back soon and be a dynamic player. I am very optimistic with Dobson just from what I saw last year.

Archeryaddict12 said:

Dobson really was getting in sync IMO with Tom before he was Injured, and I think he will gain that back soon and be a dynamic player. I am very optimistic with Dobson just from what I saw last year.

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Oh don't get me wrong. Brady does like Dobson I think and will go to him. However I see it as perhaps more of a 4-5 targets a game kind of thing due to the other guys we have that are all really good options within 10-15 yards. Dobson probably won't see many attempts from within the 15 and be regulated to have to catch beyond that on more downfield stuff. Brady will look his way sometimes but he prefers to dink and dunk with safe passes as opposed to taking a risk which is usually the smart choice.

scott99 said:

Didn't Julio Jones have the same surgery ? he looks great.

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I think Julio Jones had his surgery in October of 2013 as opposed to Dobson having it in March.

Dobson looking a little more bulked up than I remember.

I thought Dobson looked pretty good, a little rusty but his outside presence in a huge plus for the offense.

Very happy to see him take some hits, slam into the turf and then pop back up. He didn't seem nervous or bothered by the injury. All very good signs.