We all know who the biggest disappointment of them all is... I guess he took Belichick too literally when he told him to "execute".
More seriously, I was hoping for more out of Hooman. I know he was a prototypical JAG, but I honestly thought he would manage a little more production. KT and Dobson disappointed down the stretch, though some of that had to do with injuries. Amendola was hurt all year as promised. With the groin problems slowing him down he was also a JAG. Offensive line was devastated by injuries, but they played alright considering. The running backs played really well for the most part, except when they were fumbling, and except in the most important game of the season (though they weren't getting much in the way of blocking).
On the defensive side of the ball, I don't even know. They were hit harder by injuries than the offense, to the point that there were very few expectations.Talib was great, but he went down in the afccg and we really didn't have anyone else of his caliber. Dennard really impressed as a #2, but couldn't cover guys like DT as well as Talib could, which is what we expected. Logan Ryan was impressive, but definitely not a #1 CB either, and I thought he struggled when he had to take on #1 WRs. The safeties were probably a bit better than expected, but we really need someone better for the SS position. I don't know if they have been killing us, but compare what we have now to someone like Rodney Harrison, and you see what we're missing. McCourty fills the FS role very well, so we're half way there.
For the linebackers, Spikes was disappointing. Hightower was disappointing at the beginning of the season, but he started to play better as the season went on. Jamie Collins was incredible when he started seeing action. Fletcher was a bit of a JAG, no surprise there.
The defensive line performed about as expected, but they're still not an elite group. Chandler Jones has impressed at times, and seems to always be a victim of un-penalized offensive holding, but hasn't really become that unstoppable force that you HAVE to account for on the pass rush. Ninkovich performed about as expected at this point, fairly solid, makes some big plays, but again not elite, not fully living up to that #50 Mike Vrabel. The interior line far exceeded expectations, given that our 2 starters were both lost for the season right off the bat.
Allen and Gostkowksi were fantastic, not much more to say about them. Slater made some real "wow" plays in ST coverage this year. IMO he had his best season yet.
Overall I'd say that almost everyone exceeded expectations, the problem was that those expectations were so low to start with.
