I think the OP is thought provoking, but flawed. My feelings on the offense are much like that on defense. There is far too much effort being wasted on trying to label specific areas of the offense and give them values. The offense is far too interdependent to assign labels either to positions or for yards.
When are people going to FINALLY get it that the offense is far too complex to set aside labels for positions like "slot receiver", #1 WR, #2WR, move TE, and inline TE, etc. We've been watching Josh's offense for 5 or 6 years now and SHOULD by now understand that NONE of those labels matter.
I think we are going to see much more 3 WR sets than in recent years, and despite what the "WR whiners" would have you believe, we have sufficient talent at that position to fill all the needs we to have to succeed in scoring points. You guys remember points don't you. That's the object of offense, NOT getting yds.
I see a more fluid offensive system where we will constantly see WR's interchange positions all the time. DA in the slot, DA wide. Dobson Wide, but sometimes in the slot. Lafell lined up all over the place, and the same goes for Gronk, etc. Trying to isolate players with traditional xyz labels is going to be fruitless. Josh is just NOT going to make it that easy for us....or opposing defenses
I can envision a likely scenario where Edelman comes back a better player than last year, but catches fewer balls and has fewer yards, because he won't see nearly as many targets because everyone else would have stepped up their games relative to their experience. I think Bill, Tom and Josh want to get back to the day where the ball went to the open man. We don't need guys with 1000 yd seasons, when it would be a much more EFFECTIVE offense having several guys with 800 yds than one or 2 with over 1000.
As a fan base, we have GOT to start to step away from our incessant need to pigeonhole players on both sides of the ball. This is NOT going to be a good year for that.
BOTTOM LINE - Our offense is going to be a lot better than the flawed unit that was hamstrung with injuries and inexperience, YET still managed to be a top 3 scoring unit. But the reality is that the ONE area where this offense NEEDS to improve this season is in the red zone. THAT's the area that was a visible weakness last season. Obvious having the best Red Zone receiver in the league will help alot, but LaFell, Harrison and Dobson should also pick up some slack as well.
BTW- I would also like to note that last season, the Pats had the 9th best rushing offense in the league. I expect that rating to improve this season. EVERYTHING in football is cyclical. I think as we watch defenses get smaller and quicker, I see BB getting ahead of the pendulum swing back toward a strong running game with the side benefit of taking some of the pressure off Brady to constantly carry the offense.
