By your logic, the Pats should have kept Matt Cassel and traded Brady after the 2008 season because Cassel passed for 3693 yards and 21 TDs while Brady was atrocious throwing for only 76 yards and no TDs the entire season. I mean Brady threw for 4.75 yards per game that year. Embarrassing!
Not to sound disrespectful, Rob--but what's embarrassing is this comparison.
Why in the world would you bring anything about Tom Brady or Matt Cassel into the conversation, or the position of QB altogether? I didn't say anything of the sort...nor would I ever come close to saying anything even remotely comparable about Tom Brady.
The fact remains that Aaron Dobson caught 18 balls from mid-October on, which happens to be the final TEN games of the season...I don't know if it was affected by the wind, the rain, the flu, a dead relative, a bum foot, or wearing the wrong size of shoes, but we're discussing overall production. It's a shame that he was injured, dropped a lot of balls, and blew some opportunities, but the fact remains that he just didn't produce near what some are suggesting.
If you see that as some great year, then so be it. I'm not going to say that I think he's got a lot of potential and will hopefully make a year 2 leap anymore, b/c I've already done that way too many times.
If you want to check out some WRs who were rookies and had good seasons this year, look at the numbers of Keenan Allen (71 catches), Cordarelle Patterson (9 TDs), or even Terrance Williams, DeAndre Hopkins, Ace Sanders, etc--who all had decent seasons either in catches, yardage, and TD's. That isn't even taking into account the bunch of guys who were mediocre themselves, but still above Aaron Dobson in many categories such as Marlon Brown, Kenny Stills, and Robert Woods.
I believe that Dobson had a mediocre to good year based on what our usual lower Patriot rookie standards are, but it's hardly anything to brag about. The talk of Dobson as a OROY candidate was downright silly. I think you see my posts and see a blinking red sign that screams "I hate Dobson, he sucks." That's not even close to what I'm saying. I think we just have a difference of opinions on what we perceive as a "GOOD" year, production-wise.
The truth is that Dobson showed nice flashes at times, and we can see why he was a higher round pick, but he also looked like a rookie (not coincidentally, b/c that's exactly what he was) who needs to improve in many areas. Hopefully that happens and we have a great outside threat for years to come. I think there's a fine chance that's the case.