Terrified of our WR situation

[mgteich]

We have 2 meaningful draft picks, if the 3rd is gone for Sanders. Now you would use the equivalent of our last two picks to draft a wide receiver. Is that because Belichick is so good at evaluating young wide receiver talent.

I would note that unless we trade Mallett or desparately use a next year's pick, we will have our rookie WR and Sanders. This is NOT going to happen.

I really expect us to draft an X receiver that can make a day 1 impact. Whether we trade Mallett or a future draft pick to move up and take an Allen or someone else I cannot say. I compare the WR position to the RDE position last year we let Carter and Anderson walk brought in a JAG's just in case like Scott (WR = Donald Jones) but BB had a player he wanted and moved up to get him. I also think that BB is confident in Amendola/Sanders combo replacing Welker. I really believe there is a bigger plan for that X receiver position though and it is the draft IMO.

 

[Patriot Missile]

I'm not too worried. Hoping the Sanders offer never gets signed personally. I'm fine with Jones and Amendola, they were good fits imo. Since we have 3 capable TE's already I'm assuming we will only see 2 wr's on the field at any given time as it is. Occasionally 3 or 4 but that would be rare from what we've seen in the recent past. I'm all for drafting a WR in this draft, history be damned.

I nominate DeAndre Hopkins as the bully WR we need to make the big play,bring toughness and attitude to the position as well as some monster hands. Some will say he's just a rookie but sometimes you atleast got to try to gamble on production. If you never draft a receiver in the early rounds. How are you ever going to get a great one? Big fan of Markus Wheaton as well.

 

[Brady6]

My problem is the team has glaring needs on D, and we don't have the draft picks to address both. If we sign Sanders, who has not shown a great deal of production, that leaves us with two meaningful draft picks. I know you can get lucky in the 7th, but the odds are not in your favor. How do we get a respectable WR core, and move up from the 29th ranked pass defense with the few draft picks we have?

Couple thoughts (hopes)

1. Jones makes a 2nd year leap to a 10-12 sack type off the right side.
2. Armstead is a day one difference maker who can start at LE and move inside in the nickel/dime
3. Bequette can provide something as a pass rusher in sub packages and Jones primary backup. Not a major request for 3rd rd pick.
4. Tavon Wilson is able to justify his 2nd rd draft status and become a starter opposite McCourty allowing us to use the other Wilson as a hybrid LB in the nickel and dime along with Mayo.
5. Dane Fletcher makes it through camp healthy and is back to 100% in my opinion that was the most underrated loss of 2012. It forced us to use Spikes in coverage and limited our ability to use Hightower as a pass rusher in a 2-4 package.


If these things come together we really could use our picks,

1 - WR
2 - CB/DT
7 - DT/CB
7- OL

I also wouldn't rule out Mallett being moved netting some additional picks. Which we could use to draft a CB of DT earlier instead of one or the other.

 

[mgteich]

You have a fine set of hopes. Unfortunately, we have to draft BEFORE we find out which will work out.

Couple thoughts (hopes)

1. Jones makes a 2nd year leap to a 10-12 sack type off the right side.
2. Armstead is a day one difference maker who can start at LE and move inside in the nickel/dime
3. Bequette can provide something as a pass rusher in sub packages and Jones primary backup. Not a major request for 3rd rd pick.
4. Tavon Wilson is able to justify his 2nd rd draft status and become a starter opposite McCourty allowing us to use the other Wilson as a hybrid LB in the nickel and dime along with Mayo.
5. Dane Fletcher makes it through camp healthy and is back to 100% in my opinion that was the most underrated loss of 2012. It forced us to use Spikes in coverage and limited our ability to use Hightower as a pass rusher in a 2-4 package.


If these things come together we really could use our picks,

1 - WR
2 - CB/DT
7 - DT/CB
7- OL

I also wouldn't rule out Mallett being moved netting some additional picks. Which we could use to draft a CB of DT earlier instead of one or the other.

 

[Brady6]

We have 2 meaningful draft picks, if the 3rd is gone for Sanders. Now you would use the equivalent of our last two picks to draft a wide receiver. Is that because Belichick is so good at evaluating young wide receiver talent.

I would note that unless we trade Mallett or desparately use a next year's pick, we will have our rookie WR and Sanders. This is NOT going to happen.

More than likely Lewis or Hunter will be there at 29 but let's say he wanted more than the other he'd have to move up at best 8-10 slots which would cost him a 3rd in 2014. He would do that and I cannot understand why you would say otherwise?

 

[Lifer]

The Patriots nearly went to the Super Bowl with Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney as the WRs. Im not terrified.

 

[Brady6]

You have a fine set of hopes. Unfortunately, we have to draft BEFORE we find out which will work out.

Ok but we aren't doing the drafting and one would hope that BB is a good enough evaluator of talent to know what he has in players that are currently on his roster.

 

[Don Kipines]

Guys, it's like 5 days into free agency. It's a little early to be terrified.

This team right now could go out and be at least a top-5 offense in the league. Brady has three proven NFL pass-catchers in Gronk, Hernandez and Amendola. Ballard adds another big target in the middle of the field and also upgrades their two-tight end sets for the running game. They have an excellent stable of young running backs and they're bringing back 4/5th of what was an excellent offensive line. They will certainly pick up a replacement for Lloyd somewhere and it's hard to imagine that person will be much worse than Lloyd was. It could be Robert Woods, it could be Justin Hunter, it could be Emmanuel Sanders, who knows. But they will definitely bring in several more wideouts and, guaranteed, the primary replacement at that X spot will be a guy with a tougher on-field personality than Lloyd.

This isn't like a few years ago, when there was a week to go before the home opener and there wasn't an NFL safety on the roster. We're in March. Pretty obviously they are looking to upgrade the overall talent and explosiveness of an offensive roster that scored at historic levels. I personally am excited to see what they do.

By the way, even Donald Jones is a better wide receiver than Deion Branch, who was a total non-threat and playing 35-40 snaps a game in playoff games.

 

[Keyser Söze]

The Patriots nearly went to the Super Bowl with Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney as the WRs. Im not terrified.

Why do people keep spewing this crap? We had a dominant defense when we had those crap WRs.

 

[Don Kipines]

One more thing: I don't believe they're looking at this like they want to go back to '07. I think they want to change the whole culture of the team, make it tougher, more balanced, harder to game-plan against. The recent teams presented a stark but obvious dilemma: stop Brady and you beat the Pats.

Judging by their recent moves it looks like they want to be less one-dimensional and more athletic, more intimidating physically, just flat-out tougher, and not a video-game, regular-season offense with special-teams and defensive units tagging along behind.

Everybody's worried about finding the next Randy Moss because everyone thinks we need to score 35 points a game to win. It would be much easier to just build a more balanced team where you don't need a historically great offense to win, and it looks like that's what they're doing.

 

[Bruins29]

Why do people keep spewing this crap? We had a dominant defense when we had those crap WRs.

And we diddint win with elite receivers either.

We need the RIGHT receivers.

 

[PatsFanStnfrd]

Given our current limited roster of WRs, why would BB not explore getting Heyward-Get. Saw him in a couple of games last year--was a much improved player. He has speed like Ravens receiver Torrey Smith and ironically both went to Maryland. What do you think?

 

[stcjones]

I agree with you here....This guy is a burner.....would love to see him get a shot here...Must be something BB doesn't like...

Given our current limited roster of WRs, why would BB not explore getting Heyward-Get. Saw him in a couple of games last year--was a much improved player. He has speed like Ravens receiver Torrey Smith and ironically both went to Maryland. What do you think?

 

[M_A]

The more I read on this website the more educated I feel about saying that we just need to continue to focus on our D. If our offense is consistently in the top-3 in the league (thanks to BB's wonderful balance between top rushing attack and TB) then we should just focus on bringing in 1 more WR, a couple of OL for the practice squad and focus on gaining more of a passrush and a couple more cover LB's and DBs. We can easily obtain all of that in the draft and through a few more free-agency signings without having to trade Ryan Mallet.

 

[captain stone]

One more thing: I don't believe they're looking at this like they want to go back to '07. I think they want to change the whole culture of the team, make it tougher, more balanced, harder to game-plan against...

How does losing Welker & Woody make this team tougher, more balanced or harder to play against?

 

[iapatsfan]

How does losing Welker & Woody make this team tougher, more balanced or harder to play against?

The signing of a 34 yr old safety that can't cover is supposed to make us tougher, and getting rid of our top two WRs for a few bums makes us tougher to defend. Don't you get it? Every team is harder to play against when its talent level is less than the year before. How is this difficult to understand?

 

[Bruins29]

The signing of a 34 yr old safety that can't cover is supposed to make us tougher, and getting rid of our top two WRs for a few bums makes us tougher to defend. Don't you get it? Every team is harder to play against when its talent level is less than the year before. How is this difficult to understand?

Well we got this guy named Welker once and he was pretty good but no superstar.

I remember when all that went down. I told everyone Moss and Stallworth were going to be huge here.

How do you know DA is going to be a bum? Are you that sore about WW being gone?


And as far as your ramblings about talent. There was this team called the Eagles once. Really loaded up on Talent...

You know, its just not worth it here. People just dont get it.

 

[iapatsfan]

Well we got this guy named Welker once and he was pretty good but no superstar.

I remember when all that went down. I told everyone Moss and Stallworth were going to be huge here.

How do you know DA is going to be a bum? Are you that sore about WW being gone?


And as far as your ramblings about talent. There was this team called the Eagles once. Really loaded up on Talent...

You know, its just not worth it here. People just dont get it.

I am really not that sore about WW being gone as I don't feel we need three receiving options in the middle of the field. I would much rather go into next season with a cheap guy in the slot and spend the money on a couple WRs that can operate outside and stretch the field.

Let's just say DA and WW are a wash. Who on this roster is going to replace Lloyd's production?

My complaint is that our primary flaw on offense, in the playoffs, the last two seasons has been a lack of threats on the outside, which allowed quality defenses to focus all coverage in the middle of the field. As it stands today, this is an even larger weakness than last season. Three in the middle allows the D to compress and hide any weaknesses it may have. We have seen that end the Pats season the last two years.

 

[Bruins29]

I am really not that sore about WW being gone as I don't feel we need three receiving options in the middle of the field. I would much rather go into next season with a cheap guy in the slot and spend the money on a couple WRs that can operate outside and stretch the field.

Let's just say DA and WW are a wash. Who on this roster is going to replace Lloyd's production?

My complaint is that our primary flaw on offense, in the playoffs, the last two seasons has been a lack of threats on the outside, which allowed quality defenses to focus all coverage in the middle of the field. As it stands today, this is an even larger weakness than last season. Three in the middle allows the D to compress and hide any weaknesses it may have. We have seen that end the Pats season the last two years.

DA will be and is more than a slot guy. He can do a lot of things so I think he will be a good compliment. Again nothing wrong with having a guy who can work inside should AA or RG go down

I think JE is the slot guy. I think he can do it. Did well in camp and showed that he can get in there and be serviceable. I hope they sign him

I am in full agreement with you BTW. I want burners who will keep the safetys honest. I would have gotten rid of WW on a second and just had JE if they were going to go all out on some burners.

Something will happen. They are not going to have the group they have now start the season. They are looking and I am sure will do what they need to do.

 

[iapatsfan]

DA will be and is more than a slot guy. He can do a lot of things so I think he will be a good compliment. Again nothing wrong with having a guy who can work inside should AA or RG go down

I think JE is the slot guy. I think he can do it. Did well in camp and showed that he can get in there and be serviceable. I hope they sign him

I am in full agreement with you BTW. I want burners who will keep the safetys honest. I would have gotten rid of WW on a second and just had JE if they were going to go all out on some burners.

Something will happen. They are not going to have the group they have now start the season. They are looking and I am sure will do what they need to do.

I hope you're right, but I'm just not sold on DA being more than a slot guy. He averages 8.8 yds a catch. That's unbelievably low.

I would really like to see us make a run at Heyward-Bey. I know he has the bust label, but he had a pretty good season last year despite some pretty weak QB play. I think he could really benefit from so much attention being paid to the TEs and the slot.