I don't see how you can make that comparison. For example, even considering that Welker is rehabbing, I don't think that Gaffney is/was "head and shoulders" above him. On top of that, I don't think that Gaffney alone is good enough to put an otherwise putrid group of '06 receivers above the 2010 unit currently being fielded.
In the entire 2006 season, Brown had a whole 384 yards receiving. Since the best comparison to him this season would be Welker, Wes has already seen 319 yards receiving. And he still has eight more games left to play. On top of that, Welker is seeing a lot more attention/double coverage this year than Troy Brown was in 2006. Rehabbing Welker > Troy Brown.
In 2006, Gaffney had 116 yards receiving the entire year. Since he was playing split-end, we'll compare him to Branch. This season, so far, Deion Branch has hauled in 270 yards worth of passes. As a Patriot, Branch has hauled in 158 yards worth of passes. In three games, Branch has surpassed Gaffney's total for the entire season. But since we know what Gaffney did down the road in the playoffs that year, I'll give you Gaffney over Branch. Although the gap between the two is not nearly as wide as you're making it out to be.
In '06, Caldwell was our leading receiver with 762 yards. Can you name me a worse flanker that Brady has had to work with in his career? And before you say Tate, that might not be a fair comparison. Like I said, Tate certainly hasn't lived up to preseason promise, but if we're using the "rehabbing" excuse for Welker, it should be applied to Tate as well. On top of that, Tate is realistically in his rookie season here and there's certainly room to improve.
What about tight ends? In 2006, Graham hauled in 235 yards worth of passes while Watson pulled in 643. Not bad considering Watson, a tight end, was legitimately the only threat that we had to go deep that year (another negative mark on the receiving corps as a whole). Eight weeks through their rookie seasons, Gronkowski and Hernandez as a duo have already hauled in 489 yards in passes. That's not even considering their output today. As rookies, Gronkowski and Hernandez are poised to surpass Graham's and Watson's 2006 production, and that's considering the fact that neither one of these guys are the team's #1 deep threat the way Watson was for the 2006 team. Hernandez and Gronkowski > Watson and Graham. Now, blocking might be another story there. Graham was an excellent blocker and is better than Gronkowski is at this point. However, the argument isn't about blocking.
