Aaron Dobson

Zuma · Aug 21, 2015

Dobson is really going to have a breakout year and double the receptions he had last season...Three. But seriously folks...I got nothing.

PatsBoy12 · Aug 21, 2015

primetime said:
There's a history of third year wideouts breaking out. Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Laveranues Coles, Reggie Wayne, Roddy White, Santana Moss, Steve Smith, Javon Walker, Donte Stallworth, Braylon Edwards, Sidney Rice are a few names that come to mind. I remember Roddy White specifically being considered a bust after 2 years, and then emerging into one of the best and most reliable receivers in the game over the ensuing decade.

That's not to say it will work out for Dobson, of course.

Respect. Most of the players you name are/were far more durable than Dobson has been to this point. Nobody is questioning his talent to play the game and he could very well emerge like the guys on your list, but he has to be on the field to do it. And I don't say this as a slight to you at all, but to mention Dobson or even some of the other guys in the same sentence as Steve Smith is an insult. That guy is a warrior, a great receiver and a fierce competitor. The same cannot be said about a lot of the other guys.

With all that said, I do see the point you are trying to make and hope that Dobson's career follows the same arc. However, like I stated before, he must stay on the field to do it. A lot of the early camp reports were that he was doing well. He was not perfect and had some drops, but he was far more consistently good than bad. That made me a bit giddy, but then he went down and has not been a full participant since. Maybe they are just taking it easy a bit, but I doubt that seeing as how he needs as man reps as he can get in his young career. This is not Gronk we are talking about here. He controls his own destiny at this point.

primetime · Aug 21, 2015

PatsBoy12 said:
And I don't say this as a slight to you at all, but to mention Dobson or even some of the other guys in the same sentence as Steve Smith is an insult.

Sure, but it seems you missed the point. Smith is 36 and Dobson is 24. Dobson's rookie season was much better than Smith's. I mean, if Dobson became three quarters of the player Steve Smith has been over his career I'd be ecstatic, but I'm just pointing out that a lot of wide receivers did not really break out until their third year.

PatsBoy12 · Aug 21, 2015

primetime said:
Sure, but it seems you missed the point. Smith is 36 and Dobson is 24. Dobson's rookie season was much better than Smith's. I mean, if Dobson became three quarters of the player Steve Smith has been over his career I'd be ecstatic, but I'm just pointing out that a lot of wide receivers did not really break out until their third year.

I didn't miss the point. In fact, I say it in the very next paragraph . . . ? That sentence you highlight was just a product of my immense respect for Steve Smith and the fact that I would put him as a fringe HOFer, if not a guarantee (though it would probably take a few tries). I don't care what Dobson's rookie stats read, he has a loooong way to go before we can talk about him in the same light as Smith. Sorry, man. You won't get me to say otherwise. Dobson has not seen the field in a very long time and unless that changes, he will never be anything in the league.

Patriot Missile · Aug 21, 2015

We already have Edelman, Amendola and LaFell with a healthy Gronk.

Yep Dobson was healthy for a bit a couple of years ago but since then he has carved his name on the ir or pup list. Whatever he can give us would be great, I'm not overly optimistic that he can, but he might surprise.
If he can't he can always donate his hamstrings to guitar center.

Deus Irae · Aug 21, 2015

robertweathers said:
Its a tough call to make to determine if the team's course of treatment for AD was bordering on malpractice. Depending on the type of stress fracture, they can take 6-8 weeks to heal. As I understand it, since he experienced the injury Week 12, he had ~5 weeks to heal which seems on the low side but reasonable. Depending on the severity of the break and location, there are some instances where stress fractures just need surgery no matter what but if you can play through it, it won't cause additional/long term damage. However, as you point out, depending on the fracture if you keep walking/running/jumping on it, the break will take longer to heal or potentially expand.

My point is that I struggle with perceptions we as fans have around what the team/doctors did right/wrong with a patient. I'm just as guilty in doing that. We don't know the diagnosis or the prognosis.

IMO, when it comes to injuries, I think the Pats more often than not err on the side of caution and do not force players out there that have a heightened risk of long term injury. Without knowing anything, I really don't think they were rolling the dice with AD's career or grossly misdiagnosed the condition.

I'm not a doctor but I've had two different types of stress fractures. For the first one, recovery was easy as it was minor. For the second one, it was sheer hell because I never let it fully heal.

Regardless of the usually stated healing 'range', a doctor should always insist upon longer healing times for foot issues in an athlete, and they should always insist on a full battery of tests before clearing the player, even after that extra healing time. Not doing so can severely limit, or ruin careers.

captain stone · Aug 21, 2015

Seeing as this is an Aaron Drop,son thread then I might as well as my add my 2 cents (& 2 words):

Keenan, and Allen.

PatsBoy12 · Aug 21, 2015

Deus Irae said:
Regardless of the usually stated healing 'range', a doctor should always insist upon longer healing times for foot issues in an athlete, and they should always insist on a full battery of tests before clearing the player, even after that extra healing time. Not doing so can severely limit, or ruin careers.

Respect, Deus. But your point, though very well taken, only works with the assumption that these doctors are always acting in the best interest of the player. I don't believe this to be true. I think that was part of the controversy two years ago with Gronkowski choosing to act on the advice of his personal doctors rather than team doctors. I know that story likely was more overblown than anything, but I do believe and expect that there was some truth to it at least. Otherwise, you are absolutely right to state what you did.

Oswlek · Aug 22, 2015

dales804 said:
But all of them were on the field, for the most part, for their first two years.

JMC00 said:
Only Deion Branch.

Givens was targeted 15 times his rookie reason
Edelman was targeted 15 times his 2nd season and only 8 times his 3rd year.

Yes, and Branch also got hurt and missed most of the second half of his rookie season. Edelman missed much of his sophomore of junior seasons (partly due to injury, partly due to Welker/Ahern) and Givens obviously did almost nothing his first year. Time on the field is not a factor in these comparisons.

Concussion Protocol said:
If Brady had Branch and Brown to throw to and attempted 100 fewer passes, Dobson's 2013 probably wouldn't have seen as many targets

Yes, Dobson was forced the ball a bit early on but his passes remained somewhat consistent even after Gronk, Vereen and Amendola returned. He had clearly forged a valuable role for himself before being hurt.

dales804 said:
Edelman played in 15 games his second year, too. He was on the field

Not so. Edelman had a concussion that year and from that point on most of his action was as a punt returner.

patsinthesnow said:
Dobson & KT played a key role in Brady having the second worst season of his career apart from 2006. They weren't good, at all.

There is little evidence he can even be an effective NFL WR. He's also injury prone.

Bringing up his rookie stats are nonsense because 1. The only other options were Collie and Slater 2. The NFL has changed big time. Check out all the rookie WR stats from 2014.

Put 2002 rookie Branch in Dobson's 2013 situation and his stats are much different.

I have low expectations. We'll see. Tough to see him cracking the field when Lafell comes back.

Yeahhhh.... no. Low expectations are fine, but there is no reason to retroactively make his rookie season worse than it really was. I agree Branch would have been more productive, but Deion also missed much of his rookie year after an injury (hammy, I think). You also vastly overstate how inflated Dobson's stats are since he accumulated most of them after Gronk and Amendola had returned.

JackBauer said:
I think you're being a wee bit harsh in your assessment here.

varjao · Aug 22, 2015

Dobson has the talent, ok he was thrown into the fire in his rookie season and only was targeted because he was the best ranked receiver in the field at times, even as a rookie but so what He caught the passes, 500+ yards and 4 TDs even missing a lot of games, week 1 and then when he got hit by the injury bug, if healthy that could have been a 800 yard season for a rookie with 6 TDs, excellent.

Last year was really disapointing, this year in a better offense, I hope he can at least play 10 games and give Tom another option in the deep ball other than Slater that caught his last pass that night when Tom shreded Miami for 500+ yards in week 1, 2011 I think.

Schmo · Aug 22, 2015

The 3 factors affecting Dobson's chances of making the team:

1)How much dobson offers. Let's say he is going to be healthy....what is his value as the #4/5 WR?
2)What does his competition offer? Namely Gibson and Boyce. I feel good about Gibson with the little I've seen and heard about him.
3)He's competing against Boyce. Sitting out the preseason may make him look good.

TheFlyingWedge · Aug 22, 2015

He does have good hands, and he really needs them because he usually has defenders all over him. Point is, he struggle to get separation and is rarely open.

RobertWeathers · Aug 22, 2015

Deus Irae said:
Regardless of the usually stated healing 'range', a doctor should always insist upon longer healing times for foot issues in an athlete, and they should always insist on a full battery of tests before clearing the player, even after that extra healing time. Not doing so can severely limit, or ruin careers.

I agree. We don't know what ADs situation was.

PatsWickedPissah · Aug 22, 2015

Remains to be seen if Dobson is a special snowflake incapable of NFL contact or his injury was mis-managed by the Pats. I'm still skeptical of the org's medical practices even though Dr Kavorkian is no longer there.

Kontradiction · Aug 22, 2015

PatsWickedPissah said:
Remains to be seen if Dobson is a special snowflake incapable of NFL contact or his injury was mis-managed by the Pats. I'm still skeptical of the org's medical practices even though Dr Kavorkian is no longer there.

Soul_Survivor88 · Aug 24, 2015

BostonBackyardSports ‏@BBSports44 Jul 31
Bill Belichick on Aaron Dobson right now: He's in "great" shape and "Put himself in good position" #NFL #Patriots

New England Pride · Aug 24, 2015

Chiuba E. Obele said:
BostonBackyardSports ‏@BBSports44 Jul 31
Bill Belichick on Aaron Dobson right now: He's in "great" shape and "Put himself in good position" #NFL #Patriots

That's a little dated but I'm hoping he still feels that way. I really don't want to see a 36 year old Wayne keeping us from developing this guy.

Soul_Survivor88 · Aug 24, 2015

New England Pride said:
That's a little dated but I'm hoping he still feels that way. I really don't want to see a 36 year old Wayne keeping us from developing this guy.

oops, I didn't catch the date on the tweet. my bad

dales804 · Aug 24, 2015

New England Pride said:
I really don't want to see a 36 year old Wayne keeping us from developing this guy.

Outside of NE not handling an injury properly, Wayne isn't going to keep Dobson from developing. Dobson is doing it all on his own.

New England Pride · Aug 24, 2015

dales804 said:
Outside of NE not handling an injury properly, Wayne isn't going to keep Dobson from developing. Dobson is doing it all on his own.

This is a little harsh, although not false. He had an injury his rookie year that spilled into his second season. If he is healthy like the team claims he is, they should throw him to the wolves this year. Sink or swim time.

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