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I don't think that you get the main point. The Patriots are not in a "rookie stage" mode. They are in a "win now" mode while the window is small. They're going to need a wideout to make several plays in the post season. The ones the Pats have had for years have neglected to which has caused the offense to struggle in big games. It's a lot easier to shut down the middle of the field when teams aren't having to worry to much about your wideouts and they're not stretching the defense enough. The Patriots shouldn't be putting their team's chances on a rookie in the first place especially after Tate, Ocho, Branch, and Lloyd all disappointed when it got into the big games of the post season the last few years. Dobson has flashes here and there, but they need someone more reliable to win now.
The strategy is simple--build as much of a winning and competitive team year by year without sacrificing the future at the same time. In other words, while some teams are hoping for a 14-2 year and a possible SB berth this year, they also realize that they're going to be much closer to 10-6 next season due to cap implications and free agency. Many teams have shown their "win now at all costs mode." N.England doesn't do that. They are a consistent 12-4 team in every single season, give or take a game or two.
Every single year they put themselves in an opportunity to get to the tournament without making gambles and sacrifices for the future.
The one and only disagreement I would have with how Belichick handled his personnel decisions this year is that I believed that we needed ONE more veteran wide receiver, so that we didn't have to rely on THREE rookies in the same year. Normally we don't even think twice about bringing in an outside receiver during the year, but once the Hernandez and Gronk situations presented themselves in the 3rd week of June, my hope was that Belichick would have brought in another receiver at that point in time; thus giving them the entire summer to be able to get our playbook down prior to the season starting.
Of course that didn't happen (most likely for the reasons I stated above about always keeping an eye on the future in terms of draft picks and cap room), so the thinking was that we would attempt to develop one/two rookie receivers as the season progressed. We have seen Dobson make great strides in just the last month alone. If that keeps up at even a 50% rate, he can be one heck of a receiver by the time January rolls around, and that is obviously the hope of everyone.