Brandon Lafell

How nice was it today to see two long throws for TD's. Lafell and Tyms are just going to take the top off the D. It also takes the pressure off Edleman and Gronk and opens up the middle of the field for them. You think Carolina is going WTF we should have kept him. Especially after one of their receivers dropped a potential game winning pass yesterday

pencilneckgeek said:

What are you even talking about? Thompkins needs to learn the Raiders offense if he wants to get that opportunity. I don't think that will affect Amendola's playing time, however. None of the receivers on the 53-man roster have been healthy scratches these past two weeks. They all got snaps this week. Dobson just needs to make the most of his opportunities, if he wants more chances out there.

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what are YOU talking about?

I made my post a couple of weeks before thompkins got cut. amendola has i want to say 1 catch since then.

chasa said:

what are YOU talking about?

I made my post a couple of weeks before thompkins got cut. amendola has i want to say 1 catch since then.

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My bad. I shall delete my post.

chasa said:

what are YOU talking about?

I made my post a couple of weeks before thompkins got cut. amendola has i want to say 1 catch since then.

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Who is Amendola?

JMC00 said:

Literally that can't happen.

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Edelman at QB!

Brady is done, don'tchaknow

Bombdog said:

You think Carolina is going WTF we should have kept him.

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Carolina isn't thinking anything. That's the problem over there.

Brewskies said:

Who is Amendola?

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The guy on the milk box.

Deus Irae said:

LaFell's a Wr3/WR4
Sanders is a different style of WR3/WR4

Sanders had, without question, been well ahead of LaFell on overall play, entering today.

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I still say if we had signed him, the board would have erupted with "Why another smurf"?

Belichick has transformed the receivers with:
6-5 Gronk & Good Blocker
6-4 Wright & fair Blocker
6-3 LaFell & Good Blocker
6-4 Tyms ?
6-3 Dobson & fair blocker.

And retaining a pair of slot smurfs in:
5-10 Edelmen & fair-good blocker and
5-11 Amendola & fair blocker.

The edge blocking is evident in the play, too.

AzPatsFan said:

I still say if we had signed him, the board would have erupted with "Why another smurf"?

Belichick has transformed the receivers with:
6-5 Gronk & Good Blocker
6-4 Wright & fair Blocker
6-3 LaFell & Good Blocker
6-4 Tyms ?
6-3 Dobson & fair blocker.

And retaining a pair of slot smurfs in:
5-10 Edelmen & fair-good blocker and
5-11 Amendola & fair blocker.

The edge blocking is evident in the play, too.

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I'm not a big Sanders fan, so I'm not worried about LaFell v. Sanders. There were other moves to be made, but this is one WR3/WR4 compared to another. If LaFell does the job, I'm happy with that. NE still needs a WR1, but that's not going to happen, so they'll have to play without one for yet another season.

LaDude has some wheels...

AzPatsFan said:

I still say if we had signed him, the board would have erupted with "Why another smurf"?

Belichick has transformed the receivers with:
6-5 Gronk & Good Blocker
6-4 Wright & fair Blocker
6-3 LaFell & Good Blocker
6-4 Tyms ?
6-3 Dobson & fair blocker.

And retaining a pair of slot smurfs in:
5-10 Edelmen & fair-good blocker and
5-11 Amendola & fair blocker.

The edge blocking is evident in the play, too.

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Yeah, this is something I've like pointing out recently, the days of Branch being our "Tall receiver" are gone. He's gone to the guys with a larger catch radius instead of the "instinct" guys who just get open. It probably helps when the offense is simplified to an extent to have the guys who can just play, instead of the absolute technicians.

Deus Irae said:

I'm not a big Sanders fan, so I'm not worried about LaFell v. Sanders. There were other moves to be made, but this is one WR3/WR4 compared to another. If LaFell does the job, I'm happy with that. NE still needs a WR1, but that's not going to happen, so they'll have to play without one for yet another season.

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Don't hold your breath waiting.

The Patriots DO have a Number 1 receiver. It is just that he is a TE, which most teams are ill suited to handle. BB has always drafted high for TEs over WRs, spending 2 1s and a 2nd. BB thinks they are more versatile.

Did you know that Gronk now leads Megatron in TD receptions both career-wise and since he has been in the League? What do you need with a #1 WR, that a AWTE Gronk doesn't give you, and then some?

AzPatsFan said:

Don't hold your breath waiting.

The Patriots DO have a Number 1 receiver. It is just that he is a TE, which most teams are ill suited to handle. BB has always drafted high for TEs over WRs, spending 2 1s and a 2nd. BB thinks they are more versatile.

Did you know that Gronk now leads Megatron in TD receptions both career-wise and since he has been in the League? What do you need with a #1 WR, that a AWTE Gronk doesn't give you, and then some?

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If you can't see what a Calvin Johnson (your WR1 example, not mine) brings to the table that a Rob Gronkowski can't, I don't really know what to tell you. It's not as if it's hidden from view or anything.

NE does not have a WR1. Let's not go playing games with the TE/RB group in order to pretend that's not the case.

Deus Irae said:

If you can't see what a Calvin Johnson (your WR1 example, not mine) brings to the table that a Rob Gronkowski can't, I don't really know what to tell you. It's not as if it's hidden from view or anything.

NE does not have a WR1. Let's not go playing games with the TE/RB group in order to pretend that's not the case.

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What is the object of having a #1 WR? Its to score TDs; and perhaps open the middle for other receivers, and maybe remove attention on the run game.

A Gronk is a MUCH better actual contributing blocker in the run game than a Megatron. He does get deep, similarly distorts coverages, opening things for other receivers. When held in, he helps the pass blocking too.

Does Megatron offer anything as a run blocker, or a pass blocker comparably? N-O-P-E !

Is it any wonder why BB drafts TEs #1, and Pays them as if they were two or three players, combined? It is because with their versatility, they are worth 2 #1 WRs.

AzPatsFan said:

What is the object of having a #1 WR? Its to score TDs; and perhaps open the middle for other receivers, and maybe remove attention on the run game.

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No. The reliance on essentially fungible stats (TDs) is a terrible measure of receivers, and is not the specific object of any receivers, WR, TE or RB.

AzPatsFan said:

A Gronk is a MUCH better actual contributing blocker in the run game than a Megatron. He does get deep, similarly distorts coverages, opening things for other receivers. When held in, he helps the pass blocking too.

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Gronk is a TE. HE's supposed to be better at blocking. To say that he's an equivalent middle-deep threat is insane, though.

AzPatsFan said:

Is it any wonder why BB drafts TEs #1, and Pays them as if they were two or three players, combined? It is because with their versatility, they are worth 2 #1 WRs.

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Yes, actually, it is a wonder. I'll use the Patsfans.com favorite "How many SBs has Gronk won?" as the ironclad rebuttal so many around here seem to think it is.

This team won 3 Super Bowls with the TEs being relative non-factors in the passing game (by relative, I mean compared to how the Patriots use them today, not that none of the TEs during that stretch was a help in the passing game). Hell, in 2001, the TE position produced 19 total regular season receptions.

The notion that they are worth 2 WR1s is silliness of the highest order.

Deus Irae said:

This team won 3 Super Bowls with the TEs being relative non-factors in the passing game (by relative, I mean compared to how the Patriots use them today, not that none of the TEs during that stretch was a help in the passing game). Hell, in 2001, the TE position produced 19 total regular season receptions.

The notion that they are worth 2 WR1s is silliness of the highest order.

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I agree the idea of a TE worth 2 elite receiver is silly (well that is a very, every generous asseessment).

However, I don't think our SB wins are relevant. To put it another way, I think that a healthy Gronk would have won us a couple of SB's since he's been here.

However, who were the Megatrons we had when we were winning SB's? The patriots have not had an elite receiver except for Moss, and we didn't win any SB's with him.

mgteich said:

I agree the idea of a TE worth 2 elite receiver is silly (well that is a very, every generous asseessment).

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I have to think AzPatsFan would like to have that one back.

mgteich said:

However, I don't think our SB wins are relevant. To put it another way, I think that a healthy Gronk would have won us a couple of SB's since he's been here.

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I agree that the SB wins aren't relevant with regards to the TEs. My point was really that it's not relevant about the WRs, either, yet people around here use that argument for Moss, Welker, Lloyd, the deep game in general, the overall offensive philosophy, etc...

mgteich said:

However, who were the Megatrons we had when we were winning SB's? The patriots have not had an elite receiver except for Moss, and we didn't win any SB's with him.

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And here you make my point. The Patriots had, quite possibly, the greatest team in NFL history in 2007. Yet, because a significantly injured team came up less than 3 minutes short of 19-0, the tag line is "we didn't win any SBs with him". It's stupid.

mgteich said:

However, who were the Megatrons we had when we were winning SB's? The patriots have not had an elite receiver except for Moss, and we didn't win any SB's with him.

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This.

All the blather about needing elite WR completely ignores the past thirteen years of Patriots football.

Bombdog said:

You think Carolina is going WTF we should have kept him. Especially after one of their receivers dropped a potential game winning pass yesterday

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Jerricho Cotchery is projected out at 53 catches for 700 yards and a 13.1 YPR average--or pretty much exactly what Brandon LaFell had been doing for them. He's also a much cheaper option.

To take it one step further, they seem to have hit a homerun on their 1st round pick at WR--Kelvin Benjamin, who is far and away the top ranked rookie wide receiver. He's absolutely killing it.

The move to let LaFell walk was all about refusing to pay him the kind of money that a team such as NE offered (9 million for 3 years), as they were trying to keep their excellent defense together and likely knew that they wanted to take a top round WR.

supafly said:

Jerricho Cotchery is projected out at 53 catches for 700 yards and a 13.1 YPR average--or pretty much exactly what Brandon LaFell had been doing for them. He's also a much cheaper option.

To take it one step further, they seem to have hit a homerun on their 1st round pick at WR--Kelvin Benjamin, who is far and away the top ranked rookie wide receiver. He's absolutely killing it.

The move to let LaFell walk was all about refusing to pay him the kind of money that a team such as NE offered (9 million for 3 years), as they were trying to keep their excellent defense together and likely knew that they wanted to take a top round WR.

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Benjamin can play. Cotchery is a WR3/WR4, just as LaFell is, although his age is an issue going forward. Carolina has

Budding WR1 (Benjamin)
WR3/WR4 (Cotchery)
WR4 (Avant)
TE1 (Olsen)

If they'd have kept Smith, and their RBs could stay healthy, they'd be in great position in that division, and would be a real threat in the playoffs. They're in first place even now.