Bold Statement: 2014 receiving corps is the best in franchise history

2007 and it's not even close.

Tom Brady's statistics in 2007 speak for themselves.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BradTo00.htm

denverpatsfan said:

Stanley Morgan, Irving Fryar and Randy Vataha say hi!

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Leaving aside the matter of best WR group, oh to have seen what TB could have done with them (I came in after Randy but loved watching those other guys)!

nabwong said:

Moss. The greatest WR ever. You can't even double him in his prime if Brady is throwing. At minimum you double, if not a triple team. He is a homerun threat from any yard line on the field. But there's no moss in the nfl now. So Gronk over any offensive weapon in the league now.

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Your signature is in perfect sync with the song I'm listening to and I can't stop laughing. Thank you, sir.

FourierSeries said:

Seattle is probably the best defense since the 2000 Ravens.

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God damnit why does everybody say this? No they were not. Not even close.

The homerism has grown to all world levels. 2007 is and will probably be the best offense we have seen for quite some time. This offense was more balanced but not nearly as talented. Couple of thoughts come to mind:1. This year ended in a superbowl because of the defense making a crucial play and hanging on to the lead, the offensive line gave brady time to throw, had they gave him some time in 07 we win handily looking at how moss was running away from there secondary only to never see the ball because Brady was on his ass. WW takes a lot of slack on this board (understandably so) but the fact is outside of his crucial drop he has put together a far superior body of work than Jules (stat wise). Randy Moss had the same number of TD's as Gronk ,Jules, and JOJO put together so that has to count for something. That offense won games but the defense lost the championship, this offense won us games but the defense literally won us the championship. I have love for both teams but 2014 was more fortunate.

glm said:

God damnit why does everybody say this? No they were not. Not even close.

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Because insure homers are pumping up everything this 2014 squad did to ridiculous proportions

Bruins29 said:

Because insure homers are pumping up everything this 2014 squad did to ridiculous proportions

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It's ridiculous. Their defense wasn't as good as their 2013 D.

Or the 2002 Bucs, 2006 Ravens, and oh yeah our very own 2003 squad. Again, simply ridiculous.

glm said:

God damnit why does everybody say this? No they were not. Not even close.

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The Seattle Seahawks "Super Bowl" defense:

glm said:

It's ridiculous. Their defense wasn't as good as their 2013 D.

Or the 2002 Bucs, 2006 Ravens, and oh yeah our very own 2003 squad. Again, simply ridiculous.

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That just goes to show you that our own "fans" cant even give credit where credit is due to our own 2003 squad which is mentioned with all time great defenses.

It is what it is. Posters here who have started following the team and posting after the 01-03 run and have started posting after the 07 team are going to want to have something to call their own. So they rewrite history to fit their narrative. Its human nature.

Social media and twitter and myface has only really started to come on over the last few years. In 07 facebook was in its infancy, there was no twitter, message boards like these were more unknown. That adds a little more hype to all things new and memories of the old fade.

Some of the stuff being posted here is so disrespectful to our past teams that its just sad. I mean to mention some players off this years team with guys on the 01-03 teams is absurd. It just shows you who the football fans are, who the Patriot fans are, and who the homers are.

I hope this current team wins the next 3 superbowls and carves out a special place in sports history.

I'm going to go ahead and cast my vote for the 2007 offense.

Archeryaddict12 said:

Gronk. Moss was that flashy wr. Gronk is someone who is more valuable, because he can come from the back field, TE spot, slot or out wide. Moss is strictly outside.

Gronk is someone who is a matchup nightmare. You either triple or double him, and you don't even know if he is goin out or blockin. Gronk also is MR. Consistent in the RZ and moving the chains.

Gronk no doubt. Moss is the flashy wr everyone wants, gronk is one key to a championship no one has.

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Have you completely forgotten 2007. 2007 Moss was not a match up nightmare ? Moss could go for a Td at any moment, and more often that not did. Your editing of history is unbelievable.

kudzif said:

Have you completely forgotten 2007. 2007 Moss was not a match up nightmare ? Moss could go for a Td at any moment, and more often that not did. Your editing of history is unbelievable.

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Convenient amnesia

PatCat said:

Convenient amnesia

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Its contagious unfortunately

Moss wasn't a match up nightmare? Comedy.

FourierSeries said:

The existence of the running game in 2007 is exactly why 2014 receiving corps is so special. A balanced attack should, theoretically, be much harder to defend. Yet, despite being so one dimensional in 2014, the offensive output in the postseason was much more impressive than in 2007. Against two very good defenses in Seattle and Baltimore. Seattle is probably the best defense since the 2000 Ravens.

Why shouldn't postseason performance be given more weight? Every team plays the regular season for a shot to make the playoffs. You build your team to succeed in the postseason. The ultimate goal is to win a championship, and you do that by performing well in January and February.

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Have you factored in the NFL rules of emphasis.If the 2007 receiving corps played under the ticky tacky rules of today how much better do you think they would have been. In 2007 there was no defenseless receiver crap and while they increased calls on wr interference it was no way near to what it is today. It is no coincidence that overall scoring in the NFL has been creeping up.

mgteich said:

2007 and not close

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That was my kneejerk too but.....

Gronk vs Moss (really hard to compare but both by far best at position)
Edelman vs Welker (not that far apart)
LaFell vs Stallworth/Gaffney (close but i think Lafell is better and I lump them together because they rarely played together, Stallworth got almost all the #3 reps to start with then Gaffney took over and Stallworth played sparingly)
Amendola vs Watson (or meh vs meh)
Vereen vs Faulk (toss up could argue either way)
Wright vs K Brady (Wright much better)

2007 was better, a lot of it because of depth. While Stallworth and Gaffney combined to be much like LaFell, if needed, you did have both.
But this is closer than I thought at first.

kudzif said:

Have you factored in the NFL rules of emphasis.If the 2007 receiving corps played under the ticky tacky rules of today how much better do you think they would have been. In 2007 there was no defenseless receiver crap and while they increased calls on wr interference it was no way near to what it is today. It is no coincidence that overall scoring in the NFL has been creeping up.

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More scoring, more fans. Sounds MLB years ago. This is another good point and why Stats are going to be inflated.

The only difference between 2014 Superbowl success vs 2007 was Butler made a play where the defence in 2007 failed. The team was in the exact same situation as 2007. In both, the offense put the team up by 4 with about 2 minutes left.So claiming the wrs in 2014 were more clutch in selective editing.

Bruins29 said:

That just goes to show you that our own "fans" cant even give credit where credit is due to our own 2003 squad which is mentioned with all time great defenses.

It is what it is. Posters here who have started following the team and posting after the 01-03 run and have started posting after the 07 team are going to want to have something to call their own. So they rewrite history to fit their narrative. Its human nature.

Social media and twitter and myface has only really started to come on over the last few years. In 07 facebook was in its infancy, there was no twitter, message boards like these were more unknown. That adds a little more hype to all things new and memories of the old fade.

Some of the stuff being posted here is so disrespectful to our past teams that its just sad. I mean to mention some players off this years team with guys on the 01-03 teams is absurd. It just shows you who the football fans are, who the Patriot fans are, and who the homers are.

I hope this current team wins the next 3 superbowls and carves out a special place in sports history.

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As usual, you have no idea what you're talking about. I was following the team during their 3 in 4 SB run. I would easily take either of the 2003 or 2004 defense over the 2014. Even the 2001 defense probably performed better in the playoffs than the 2014 version, given what they were able to do against the Rams.

What this 2014 offense did in the postseason is unprecedented, in terms of the franchise's history. Again, you put more emphasis on regular season success and records. That's fine. By that criteria you'd also probably rate Peyton ahead of Brady. I don't. I remain consistent in my claim that postseason success outweighs regular season accomplishments.

The fact of the matter is that Randy Moss is an all-time great. But he did absolutely nothing for us in the postseason. He had far better playoff performances for the Vikings than he did in NE. This is an undeniable fact.

Our very own coach once said that "it's about building a team, not collecting talent." That the 2007 receiving unit had more individual talent is irrelevant. The 2014 unit produced when it mattered. And no, it's not just because they won a SB. It's that they produced at a very high level.

And if we're talking about individual receivers in the clutch, I would rate 3 ahead of both Welker and Moss:

1. Troy Brown
2. Deion Branch
3 Julian Edelman

In that order.

kudzif said:

Have you factored in the NFL rules of emphasis.If the 2007 receiving corps played under the ticky tacky rules of today how much better do you think they would have been. In 2007 there was no defenseless receiver crap and while they increased calls on wr interference it was no way near to what it is today. It is no coincidence that overall scoring in the NFL has been creeping up.

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That doesn't explain the massive drop off from the regular season to the postseason. Seriously, the drop off was enormous. Our passing game in the postseason was atrocious. No, that isn't an exaggeration.

Bruins29 said:

Its contagious unfortunately

Moss wasn't a match up nightmare? Comedy.

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Exactly. Moss was the true definition of a nightmare, just ask revis.