Here Comes Dobsonmania

Do we have any kind of an idea of the seriousness of Dobson's injury? It may not even be that bad. I still see Tyms getting more snaps especially with Minitron not at 100%.

His new nickname is Glassatron (creative right? ).

Froob said:

His new nickname is Glassatron (creative right? ).

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Lmao dislike!!!

luuked said:

If you have this amazing talent for predicting who becomes a productive NFL player before the draft maybe you should give us your opinion on this year's players. You know, before they are drafted. Without the benefit of hindsight.

Weird how Tavon Austin (8), Justin Hunter (34), C. Patterson (29) or Robert Woods (41), who were all taken before Dobson (59), are all not doing that great at WR either. Maybe drafting is actually not that easy?

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Not to nitpick, since I agree with the general point of your post, but all four of the guys you mentioned are decent at a minimum, and Hunter in particular is genuinely good. The only reason why he isn't putting up DeAndre Hopkins-type numbers is because of the dumpster fire Tennessee has at QB.

luuked said:

If you have this amazing talent for predicting who becomes a productive NFL player before the draft maybe you should give us your opinion on this year's players. You know, before they are drafted. Without the benefit of hindsight.

Weird how Tavon Austin (8), Justin Hunter (34), C. Patterson (29) or Robert Woods (41), who were all taken before Dobson (59), are all not doing that great at WR either. Maybe drafting is actually not that easy?

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Austin would be outstanding on the right team. Woods is solid. Haven't seen/heard much of Hunter. Patterson is decent and he'll make a nice play every now & then... but for the most part he's been quiet. I have no idea why the Vikings let him have #84.

Three practice squad signings and not a one of them a WR, nor has Dobson been placed on IR to make room for a replacement. Hopefully that's a good sign on the receiver health front. Or maybe it means that NE is going with more 2TE or 6OL sets this week and thinks the guys will be feeling better against Miami. Or maybe I'm just reaching.

It turned into a dumpster fire when they made him play on his busted foot.

Mike Reiss ‏@MikeReiss 3m3 minutes ago
As one would expect, no sign of WR Aaron Dobson (hamstring) at today's practice. Wouldn't be surprised if he lands on IR based on timing.

Potentially his spot goes to Siliga. They already have Tyms on the roster and 2 WRS on the PS, so I see no need to sign another.

Mack Herron said:

Mike Reiss ‏@MikeReiss 3m3 minutes ago
As one would expect, no sign of WR Aaron Dobson (hamstring) at today's practice. Wouldn't be surprised if he lands on IR based on timing.

Potentially his spot goes to Siliga. They already have Tyms on the roster and 2 WRS on the PS, so I see no need to sign another.

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Anything for the D the timing is just right we never knew ya Dobby!

kennyb said:

It turned into a dumpster fire when they made him play on his busted foot.

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I'm going to highly disagree here, since no one 'made him' play on a broken foot.

As a matter of fact, he was given about 3x the length of time to heal this summer as opposed to the initial projection, and they took the injury situation extremely cautiously.

supafly said:

I'm going to highly disagree here, since no one 'made him' play on a broken foot.

As a matter of fact, he was given about 3x the length of time to heal this summer as opposed to the initial projection, and they took the injury situation extremely cautiously.

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It was last year he played on it for a week.

supafly said:

I'm going to highly disagree here, since no one 'made him' play on a broken foot.

As a matter of fact, he was given about 3x the length of time to heal this summer as opposed to the initial projection, and they took the injury situation extremely cautiously.

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If you're basing that on just this year, Fly, then you are late to the story.

They screwed up and had him playing on it LAST YEAR.

I was at the Buffalo game (last game of the season) when he tried to come back too soon after injuring it a few weeks earlier against the Broncos. The minute he started limping our whole section was yelling about why the hell couldn't they have given this kid's foot a couple more weeks rest with the playoff bye coming up. You could see in warmups that he looked like he was skating out there - - it was raining hard and the field was a mosh pit. It was assinine to play him in that meaningless game with him obviously not 100% on that foot.

They then screwed up royally AGAIN by waiting until March before having him undergo the corrective surgery (in the hopes that it would fix on its own - - giving it the rest they would not give it for the meaningless Buffalo monsoon game). This left him unable to do OTAs or TC at full participation.

In the meantime, 4 weeks later, on April 10th, the Patriots fired Dr. Gill. Perhaps there's no connection. But one must admit, there has been alot of indecision and bad moves in the way this had been handled.

The final disappointing straw that broke the disappointing camel's back... The Great Wide Receiver "Re-Do" of 2013 is officially a fail.

(Just imagine how unstoppable this team would be if just ONE of Dobson/Boyce/KT/Amendola could have broken through!)

kennyb said:

It was last year he played on it for a week.

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shmessy said:

If you're basing that on just this year, Fly, then you are late to the story.

They screwed up and had him playing on it LAST YEAR.

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I think I still stand by my comments that I have a difficult time believing that the team "forced" him to play, but thanks for the explanation about last year vs. BUF. There must have been some positive communication on Dobson's end that he was good to go as well. I've yet to hear that Belichick ever made an injured player perform when he couldn't.

Aside from Brian Tyms who's only getting a couple/few snaps per game, I don't see anyone who Dobson would potentially improve on in terms of our receiving options, anyway. Who would you take out? The first answer is Amendola, but apparently Belichick and co. feel that he provides something that is needed.

Here's the unfortunate truth, barring significant change moving forward. With Dobson seeming to be useless, and Tyms nearly so, the Patriots are limited to, basically,

1TE
2 WR2/WR3
1 3dRB

in the passing offense, with an occasional appearance by Mr. Wright. That's nowhere near good enough. Unfortunately, once again, Brady will have to find a way to make it good enough.

It could very easily have been so much better....

luuked said:

If you have this amazing talent for predicting who becomes a productive NFL player before the draft maybe you should give us your opinion on this year's players. You know, before they are drafted. Without the benefit of hindsight.

Weird how Tavon Austin (8), Justin Hunter (34), C. Patterson (29) or Robert Woods (41), who were all taken before Dobson (59), are all not doing that great at WR either. Maybe drafting is actually not that easy?

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the players you named are all doing better then dobson.

shmessy said:

If you're basing that on just this year, Fly, then you are late to the story.

They screwed up and had him playing on it LAST YEAR.

I was at the Buffalo game (last game of the season) when he tried to come back too soon after injuring it a few weeks earlier against the Broncos. The minute he started limping our whole section was yelling about why the hell couldn't they have given this kid's foot a couple more weeks rest with the playoff bye coming up. You could see in warmups that he looked like he was skating out there - - it was raining hard and the field was a mosh pit. It was assinine to play him in that meaningless game with him obviously not 100% on that foot.

They then screwed up royally AGAIN by waiting until March before having him undergo the corrective surgery (in the hopes that it would fix on its own - - giving it the rest they would not give it for the meaningless Buffalo monsoon game). This left him unable to do OTAs or TC at full participation.

In the meantime, 4 weeks later, on April 10th, the Patriots fired Dr. Gill. Perhaps there's no connection. But one must admit, there has been alot of indecision and bad moves in the way this had been handled.

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I agree with almost everything you said here. There was no need to get him reps on a foot that was obviously badly injured in a meaningless game. The only thing I would disagree with is the part about the surgery. In my non medical opinion, surgery should always be a last resort. Even if it costed him mini camp, it's worth it in my opinion to see if it would heal on it's own. Now granted, we don't have the information that the medical staff had. Maybe they were 90 percent sure it needed surgery and wasted valuable time, but my guess is that they truly wanted to see how the foot healed without opening the thing up and putting screws in. Theres no going back from getting cut open. Overall, this situation has been very unfortunate. I really liked the way he played in 2013.

New England Pride said:

I agree with almost everything you said here. There was no need to get him reps on a foot that was obviously badly injured in a meaningless game. The only thing I would disagree with is the part about the surgery. In my non medical opinion, surgery should always be a last resort. Even if it costed him mini camp, it's worth it in my opinion to see if it would heal on it's own. Now granted, we don't have the information that the medical staff had. Maybe they were 90 percent sure it needed surgery and wasted valuable time, but my guess is that they truly wanted to see how the foot healed without opening the thing up and putting screws in. Theres no going back from getting cut open. Overall, this situation has been very unfortunate. I really liked the way he played in 2013.

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As far as I remember, They only really wasted a few/several weeks anyway, while waiting to see if the foot would heal prior to surgery. I could be wrong. I haven't visited the situation since it happened so I'm only going off of memory.

I definitely agree that surgery will always be a last resort, but I just can't get on board with the thought that the organization "forced" a rookie with limited knowledge of the playbook who was still very raw in talent to play when he was clearly injured. Had someone given the example of Gronk and SB46 vs. the NYG, then maybe it'd be worth pondering.

kennyb said:

It turned into a dumpster fire when they made him play on his busted foot.

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They wouldn't make him play on his busted foot...he had enough time to get it right. Then it's fine and now pulls a hammy because shape seems to have been an issue...