Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

People keep bringing up the idea of a Wildcat kind of offense. But I fail to see how that could possibly be a good idea. (I'm assuming Brady is healthy for the purposes of this discussion.)

1. Running a Wildcat with Brady on the field just sets him up to be hit hard. Using Brady as a WR is not an experiment that should be repeated.

2. Running a Wildcat without Brady on the field gets Brady off the field. I can not think of a single situation in which I wouldn't want Brady leading the Patriot offense. If the yardage is so short that you clearly want a QB sneak -- well, Brady is actually pretty good at carrying the ball in that scenario. If the yardage is any longer, you want one of the greatest passers in the history of the game to be on the field.

That doesn't mean we can't have the occasional direct snap, halfback option, or whatever. But those plays should be used against offenses that are forced to respect Brady standing in the pocket, and hence are forced to respect every Patriot eligible receiver.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

Teams that struggle to score need to do that sort of thing. As long as the Pats have Brady, I like their chances running their regular offense with him taking the snaps. No need to wildcat, the offense is just fine and doesn't need to be fixed.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

Concur. The wildcat is typically a gimmick for teams that can't score.

HOF QB + HOF WR + #83 = no need for the wildcat.

IMHO.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

The only time I don't want the ball snapped to Brady are the Faulk shotgun direct snap and the Edelman motion QB sneak. No point in taking the ball out of Brady's hands.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

That's the only scenario I'd ever want to see it in. That said we have more chance to succeed on offense with Tom Brady on the field than off it.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

They're going to run the wildcat but they need to Kyle Eckel back to run the Flexbone.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

No need for it. The Pats have one of the highest scoring offenses in the league. Other teams have a very difficult time stopping it. As others have said the wildcat is for teams that have a hard time moving the ball/scoring. I think we'll see a lot of it this week from the Jets.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

Not until Brady retires.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

As a rule, I don't want Brady on the field without the ball in his hand. Also, why put him out where he's fair game for a hit. I even get nervous on the "direct snap" plays because I don't want some big lineman running over him to get to the ball. Bad idea all around.

Re: Should the Patriots ever run a Wildcat offense?
 

Only teams with average or worse QBs use the Wildcat. Not to mention, it's overrated.