I just can't imagine a receiving corps of Amendola, Dobson, Boyce, Moe and Slater. Three rookies, a special-teamer and an injury-prone slot receiver. If that's the case, we may still need to call up Lloyd.
Let's just revisit the whole "the Patriots system is impossible to learn and new wideouts have no shot at playing well in it" thing. First, let's consider players who thrived instantaneously: Moss, Welker, Gronk, Hernandez, Woodhead, Edelman, Branch (twice), Gaffney, Ridley. Good players, and probably good players anywhere.
Now, look at those who failed in this system and tell me what system they have since gone on to thrive in? Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson, Taylor Price, Brandon Tate, Ochocinco, Galloway, Doug Gabriel, Reche Caldwell. For some reason, we take their lack of production to indicate that the offense is difficult to learn, when in reality, those players, at the given stage they were in during their career, flat-out sucked.
Those eight guys inform the assumptions we make about our offense and its complexity. But, consider:
These EIGHT players, since leaving the Patriots have...
been off our roster a combined total of
31 years
and of those only managed to land on NFL rosters a combined
7 years
and in that time made only
51 receptions
Those players sucked. Really, really sucked. We cannot continue to use them as barometers for other players whose ability we have not learned as of yet. It remains to be seen whether Dobson & Boyce are good football players. But whether or not they succeed in the Patriots offense will be determined purely by their ability, and not related to the complexity of this offense.
Good players play well here. Bad players don't. Just like everywhere else. If anything, unlike other places, Brady has milked guys for more than what they should've been worth.
