What about the Pittsburgh and Jacksonville games, or a large amount of 2013 or all of 2014?
I'm not sure what anyone is expecting from the 3rd/4th target in this offense, honestly.
Brady has thrown 133 passes this year, with 28 aimed at Gronk and 42 aimed at JE - that means that 38% of his passes are aimed at those two guys. Brady has his two primary targets, and they're as good as any duo in the league. Even better for the Pats, there is no set "3rd receiver" in this offense, and with Dobson, Amendola, Lewis and Chandler = all very different types of receivers - McD and Brady can find the match-ups they most like.
Dobson's caught 9 of the 12 passes thrown his way (not counting getting a 52-yard PI call against Jacksonville), and had 87 yards (7 out of 8) against Buffalo. He's got more receptions and more yards than Danny Amendola, and comes at less than one-fifth the cost.
Dobson is on target for 36 catches, 48 targets and 539 yards. For under $800k. And BB has singled him out for good downfield blocking, which is too often overlooked (DA is another very good blocker, and so is Jojo - apparently BB values that).
Given the make-up of the current scheme, with two primary targets and a bunch of third options, particularly when LaFell comes back, if Dobson gives us just a couple of Buffalo-like performances, he's more than worth the money. I also think that the Buffalo game proves that when Brady needs him (in case of other injuries), he's ready to make it happen.
In 4 games, Robert Woods is on almost the exact same pace, by the way.
Yeah, we could trade him, or just about anyone, for an upgrade at a position of need, but I feel that this guy is being treated unfairly on this board. Same as Amendola a year ago, because he's not getting the ball a lot doesn't mean he's not getting open - with the way this offense is rolling, it only means that he's not the only one getting open.
EDIT: Sorry, this is somewhat a double post, as the one up top didn't show up on my feed for a long time...weird.