JoeSixPat
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2004
- Messages
- 10,671
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OK, you have all talked about him in comparison to the other WR's that were on our team, yet you do not compare to others in the NFL, where does he rate amongst the top 20 or 30 WR's in the league.
Is he a true #1 WR, or should I say CAN he be a true #1 WR.
There's no need to look him as a #1WR. There's hardly a need to even assign a number to ANY Patriot WR.
And looking at Stallworth's overall numbers or comparing them to "top" WRs in the league too misses the point that we are most interested in Stallworth to play a significant ROLE.
Specifically the role of a deep field threat.
Last season with our "deep" threat WR averaging 13 yards a catch, defenses were able to move up signfiicantly, use their safeties to blitz, stop the run, or double cover our main receivers Watson and Caldwell. This caused major pressure on Brady,and limited production from our runing and passing game.
Last season Stallworth - specifically playing the role of deep threat for Philly, averaged 19 yards per catch. Of course that's an average - so to be on the safe side you can count on the fact that safeties will have no choice but to position themselves much more than 6 yards further back... but even if it were "just" 6 yards that would make a meaningful difference to our team.
Stallworth attained that average of course by bringing in a number of big plays and THAT'S what secondaries will be concerned about preventing - pushing them even deeper down the field
Most importantly one doesn't need a deep threat WR who will catch 80 passes a season to achieve the desired impact. Like Stallworth, two big catches made a game, along with the threat of several more, is more than enough to keep a defense "honest" and avoid the pressures placed on our offense last season.
So if you are looking to prove that Stallworth's numbers don't stack up to the "top" receivers in the league in numbers or total yardage - congratulations, you've done so succesfully - but you've fully missed the point of why the Patriots are so interested in Stallworth (and apparently Randy Moss)
The role for Stallworth is not to catch 80 passes or rack up 1200 yards - it's to do exactly what he did in Philly. 40 passes & 800 yards would be a MAJOR difference maker here, not just for those yards and catches alone, but also in what it does to help our TEs, other WRs, RBs, as well as preventing safeties from having a 15 yard head start on hitting Brady.
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