Last yr we were overloaded at WR , this yr are we thin..

Troy Brown is gone , Donte is in cleveland, and Chad Jackson well is playing himself in Bethal Johnson land..

We have 3 locks as our starters- Moss, Welker and Gaff.. Washington needs more time at WR, but what about a 5th wr. Slater or CJ jones , Aiken looks to be heading for IR,


So is there more questions this yr on our WR than last.

I don't know, I think we're okay at WR. Between Jackson, Washington and Slater, one of them will be fine for the limited number of snaps a #4 WR gets. There are other positions that have me concerned a lot more than WR right now.

Last year the question was how the new receivers would become acclimated, timing with Brady, and learning the playbook. This year we don't have those questions. Most other teams have questions at #2 WR; not too many are set at #1-3 WR. There's probably 31 other teams that wish they had our problem at their WR position.

jmt57 said:

I don't know, I think we're okay at WR. Between Jackson, Washington and Slater, one of them will be fine for the limited number of snaps a #4 WR gets. There are other positions that have me concerned a lot more than WR right now.

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Exactly, especially offensive line.

I don't know... Troy wasn't even eligible to play in the beginning of last year and no one knew what Stallworth was going to do. He ended up being a body/occasional YAC receiver. Can't Slater fill that role PLUS? Washington is in his 2nd year at the position and Chad Jackson might be, at the very least, the player we saw against the Jets. What else would you need? Also, Aiken?/Jones/Ventrone -- who knows. I'd be much more worried about other trouble areas.

Do yourself a favor and look at the stats the WR4 puts up for even the pass-happiest of teams. You'll feel better.

Other than the loss of Stallworth, our WR corp is exactly the same. Troy Brown was only activated for one or two games last year. Logan Mankins had more receptions than Troy did last year. Mankins caught one tipped pass for a 9 yard loss. That is one more reception than Troy finished the season with.

Stallworth did have almost 700 yards and 3 TDs along with several big plays, but he is the only real loss the Pats have had at WR. Granted we have yet to prove we have anyone or a combination of players who can reproduce that production.

rusH1023 said:

I don't know... Troy wasn't even eligible to play in the beginning of last year and no one knew what Stallworth was going to do. He ended up being a body/occasional YAC receiver. Can't Slater fill that role PLUS? Washington is in his 2nd year at the position and Chad Jackson might be, at the very least, the player we saw against the Jets. What else would you need? Also, Aiken?/Jones/Ventrone -- who knows. I'd be much more worried about other trouble areas.

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Slater cannot fill Stallworth's role and/or "plus", as you say. As much as Stallworth wasn't the guy we had hoped, he still had almost 50 catches. No way in hell we get that out of a fifth round rookie. That said, the combo of CJ/Slater/Washington/other should be plenty to fill his shoes.

After looking at everything, I am of the opinion that this team's success will hinge on the offensive line. The defense will be Super Bowl caliber, the offensive skill players will be plenty good (they won't put up record breaking stats, but they will be good enough to win). What it will come down to is will the line be able to control a super-human pass rush (i.e Giants in the super bowl) and will it be able to counter a good pass defense with the ability to open holes in the running game. These two factors will be what decide the season; everything else is in place, IMO.

edit- And falling under the running game category is also whether or not McDaniels is willing to commit to a balanced attack that features more of a running game.

jmt57 said:

I don't know, I think we're okay at WR. Between Jackson, Washington and Slater, one of them will be fine for the limited number of snaps a #4 WR gets. There are other positions that have me concerned a lot more than WR right now.

Last year the question was how the new receivers would become acclimated, timing with Brady, and learning the playbook. This year we don't have those questions. Most other teams have questions at #2 WR; not too many are set at #1-3 WR. There's probably 31 other teams that wish they had our problem at their WR position.

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One of the annual previews this year (I forget which one) ranks WRs as 1s, 2s, and 3s. Moss was the top #1, Welker was the second #2 (after a Colt), and Gaffney was the top #3.

Sean Pa Patriot said:

Troy Brown is gone , Donte is in cleveland, and Chad Jackson well is playing himself in Bethal Johnson land..

We have 3 locks as our starters- Moss, Welker and Gaff.. Washington needs more time at WR, but what about a 5th wr. Slater or CJ jones , Aiken looks to be heading for IR,


So is there more questions this yr on our WR than last.

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I think we're going to see expanded passing to the RB's this year.

The WR corps is fine. Relax.

BTW, many teams would kill to have our top 3 WR combination. Look at our division. Would you trade Moss, Welker, and Gaffney for the five best WRs of the combined teams in our division? I think it would be close. Evans, Coles, Cotchery, Ginn Jr., and..... ah... just pick a player out of hat would be a nice combination, but both Welker and Moss had more yards, catches, and TDs than any of them.

I would lean towards the trade because the depth may outweigh the loss you get with the two prinary WRs

When looking at the passing game it is prudent to include RB's (as someone else mentioned) and TE's. Watson has had some drops in camp but he was something fierce between the hashmarks last year. Pollard is a proven pass catcher in this league and Thomas has shown, albeit in a limited capacity, that he can get open and make plays. The overall arsenal of weapons this team has is pretty stunning.

Not even I'd go so far as to say we are thin - and our "overloading" at WR last year is a bit of a misnomer too... Jackson and Brown were both on PUP and were really just insurance in case of injury.

Stallworth was great insurance in case of injury to Moss, and to this day I wish he had been better utilized as a deep WR as I feel having two deep threats would have been a big help to Moss in clear deep ball situations - but its also clear that Stallworth's shortcomings as an all around WR (and his very high contract numbers for this year) meant he'd not be returning.

Barring injury we're more than fine at WR - if there is an injury with Moss we'll really be hoping that Chad Jackson can contibute as a deep WR.

At the end of the day, the #1 - #3 WRs wil see the bulk of passes coming their way. When we're talking about the #4-6 WRs we're not talking about a lot of receptions period.

The caveat here again is "barring injury" - but one can only carry so many WRs so there's always going to be some gambling when it comes to roster spots.

We're going to run more.

From todays pratice it is clear we will be running a no huddle . we used to run a mini huddle before . IN such case we will never go 4 WR.

You need 3 WR 1 TE and 1 RB. if we are going to spread and run this is the setup we will go with . with wes and TE in the middle and seam or blocking you will have the defences on the run.

the other thing is a 2007 formation we rarely used the 2 RB / 1 TE /2 WR.with watson you can flex him or evans,morris and jordan too.drive the defences crazy.

It's not clearcut.

1. Stallworth is gone.
2. IIRC, at this point last year Caldwell and perhaps others hadn't been cut yet. Would you like to have Reche in camp now solely as injury protection? Probably, but it's no big deal.
3. Aiken's not on IR yet. But I agree that's a worry.
4. The brass seems to have more confidence in Washington at WR than his reps on the field would indicate. That's just a feeling I get.
5. Slater seems in line to take one of the jobs that traditionally goes to a safety, so he should offer at least emergency depth.
6. With Jordan on the roster, Faulk can realistically provide emergency depth at WR.
7. If Thomas can stay healthy for once, we have two pass-catching TEs.

Sean Pa Patriot said:

Chad Jackson well is playing himself in Bethal Johnson land..

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If I were Bethel I'd be pissed at the comparsion...

1976pats said:

If I were Bethel I'd be pissed at the comparsion...

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If you were Bethel, you'd be out of the league and wishing you were Chad Jackson.

Deus Irae said:

If you were Bethel, you'd be out of the league and wishing you were Chad Jackson.

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I think he was joking Deus.....where does all this love for Jackson come from? Just wondering? Where you a fan of his in college?

Patslifer said:

I think he was joking Deus.....where does all this love for Jackson come from? Just wondering? Where you a fan of his in college?

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I have no particular love for Jackson. It's just stupid to be calling him a bust when he's never even had a training camp before and he's coming off of an ACL injury.