Wide Receivers - As Good As It Can Be

[SVN]

The New England Patriots rang up 518 points during the 2010 NFL Season with the following cast of characters:

Brady
BJGE
Woodhead
Gronkowski (rookie)
Hernandez (rookie)
Welker (coming off ACL surgery)
Moss/Branch
Tate

2010 New England Patriots Statistics & Players - Pro-Football-Reference.com

I'm more concerned about the depth and health of the New England Patriots offensive line.

We may miss woodhead more than welker. He played hard and really got the offense going when nothing was working and made a lot of individual plays plus was great in pass protection. Not sure about veeren's pass protection abilities.

 

[Rob0729]

We may miss woodhead more than welker. He played hard and really got the offense going when nothing was working and made a lot of individual plays plus was great in pass protection. Not sure about veeren's pass protection abilities.

I never thought Woodhead was a particular good pass protector. Adequet at best IMHO. I don't know if Vereen can do the direct snap run that Woodhead does so well because I think people lose sight of Woodhead on that play.

 

[Danger Zone]

Dobson/Boyce - Not ready, not surprisingly (they're rookies, for crying out loud)
Edelman - Edelman
Amendola - Amendola

Outside of Thompkins, everything is not only as the "pessimists" would have indicated, it's as even most "optimists" would have acknowledged. Thompkins has upset the apple cart. Everything else is pretty much as one would expect to this point. Given that, your post really doesn't make any sense.

Deus Irae, defending the pessimists right to shake their canes and post YOU ROOKIE RECEIVERS AREN'T ANYTHING SPECIAL! GET OFF MY LAWN!!

Add Sudfeld is part of the the rookie receiver excitement (yes, even though he is a TE).

Boyce and Dobson appear to be playing better at this point than any high pick rookie receiver we've had in several years hence the optimism.

I'm sorry you have such a hard time understanding the concept.

 

[Danger Zone]

The bottom line was that everyone was concerned over the loss of Welker (not saying that I agree with him leaving b/c I don't, at least not over the small amt of money that was involved), and the loss of Llyod.

Amendola has looked like he belongs and has developed a nice chemistry with Brady. At this point Belichick took a gamble on a younger player who potentially has a higher upside over the course of the next 4-5 yrs, so we'll have to live with it. The talent and chemistry looks to be there. The main concern is the injury history, which can't be predicted for the future.

Thompkins actually seriously looks like a possible upgrade over Lloyd, who I'd have been fine with keeping as a WR3 or WR4, but never wanted to retain as the WR2/outside receiver. His talent, speed, etc were definitely limited. Thompkins looks as though he can come close to replicating Llyod's statistical production, while even upgrading some of the things that he failed at such as YACs and beating man coverage.

The other question was how to replace Hernandez---and although that will be tough, it appears as though they'll call on the next man up and go from there. Sudfeld + more of a running game can help to offset that loss.

In the end they may have a definite learning curve, but there is potential to be improved in certain areas too--or at least on par with last season, 2011, and 2010.

I agree with everything you said.

And I honestly, with past injuries to Gronk and Hernandez, I really don't see why we couldn't have had Welker AND Amendola.

I've heard the reasoning.. I just don't buy that having Welker and Amendola on our team would have been a bad thing.

 

[ausbacker]

Deus Irae, defending the pessimists right to shake their canes and post YOU ROOKIE RECEIVERS AREN'T ANYTHING SPECIAL! GET OFF MY LAWN!!

Add Sudfeld is part of the the rookie receiver excitement (yes, even though he is a TE).

Boyce and Dobson appear to be playing better at this point than any high pick rookie receiver we've had in several years hence the optimism.

I'm sorry you have such a hard time understanding the concept.

I'd be fine with what Deus has put forward if it didn't come across as don't be optimistic and enjoy the youth development this preseason. I agree with much of what he's said but also believe this preseason to be a breath of fresh air because of the youth injection. The unknown has me excited. They could be better or they could be worse than hoped for come the season proper. Not knowing is where my interest has been piqued.

 

[VrabelJr]

We've had worse rookie WRs on our team before. I think having three of them standing out has helped push them even more. The fact that they are all on the field running routes and catching passes from Brady this early in their careers is a great thing. We'll see how the stats compound come the end of the season.

Any of Boyce, Dobson or Thompkins having 500+ yards is a great thing. Two of them having 500+ is even better.

 

[JoeSixPat]

I would of never thought this in early July, but Brady should have enough weapons to work with.

Primary Targets:
1. Gronk
2. Amendola
3. Thompkins

Secondary Targets:
4. Sudfeld
5. Vereen
6. Edelman

Bonus Targets: (If one of these three can step up it's a bonus)
7. Dobson
8. Boyce
9. Fells

The Key is of course Gronk/Amendola being 100% for when it counts the most.

Seems to me that during the Super Bowl years Brady was spreading the ball out more - I think having Moss and Welker made the offense much more predictable, making it difficult to make the one PLAY when it counts the most

I'm really hoping the gameplan this year is to spread the ball - which would mean that Amendola's numbers would be far short of Welker's - but we'll be a much better team

 

[Ozymandias]

As far as roles go, the 2011 Giants template is somewhat applicable.

Thompkins in Nicks role, Amendola in Cruz' and Dobson in Manningham's. I think Dobson's biggest impact will come as a situational deep threat and red zone jump ball specialist as he isn't refined enough yet to do all of the other things good enough.

 

[ivanvamp]

As far as roles go, the 2011 Giants template is somewhat applicable.

Thompkins in Nicks role, Amendola in Cruz' and Dobson in Manningham's. I think Dobson's biggest impact will come as a situational deep threat and red zone jump ball specialist as he isn't refined enough yet to do all of the other things good enough.

Ball inside the 5-yard line, you line up with Dobson on the outside, Gronk and Sudfeld at the TE, with Ridley and Vereen in the backfield. You don't know which RB the ball could be handed off to, and Vereen especially could leak out for a pass. Meanwhile, you have two gigantic TEs and another very tall WR out there as red zone targets, so a pass play would be ripe against what would almost certainly be a heavy defensive set.

I like that scenario.

 

[AzorianPats]

Come on. Word is this was a minor injury and he would have played if this was a real game.

I wonder if the Pats are overstating this injury (if he really is injured at all) because they have seen enough of Amendola to know what they have and they wanted to see the rest of the receivers and give them more reps with Brady. The Pats did the same thing with Moss in 2007. Moss didn't even see a preseason game in 2007 due to injury and had a monster game his first game out.

People are making far too much of this "injury" to Amendola. The guy was seen after he was done for the night two weeks ago sitting on the bench chatting it up with Brady. If he had a real or significant injury, he wouldn't have been on the field.

Thank you!

This whole people freaking out about Danny Amendola not playing Thursday thing is silly to me. Even though all reports suggest he was fine , fans are still freaked out. Amendola is fine, he's just as prone to getting injured as any other player playing football. Not to mention, people are still bringing up Welker, even though he's gonna miss the rest of the preseason with a sprained ankle.

Amendola is an upgrade over Welker. FACT. He looks like Welker in the slot, except he has another dimension to his game where he can line up outside and be effective...something Welker never was.

 

[RIpats88]

I wonder though if its fair to call Amendola injury prone...sure he's been injured the past 2 years..BUT a dislocated clavicle isnt something that is a normal injury...or a dislocated elbow...those seem more like freak injuries

now if it was something like Hamstring problems(like ras ir dowling) I would be more hesitant for the season.

 

[JMC00]

He gets hammered on about missing games but had the IR rule been in effect for '11 maybe he doesn't miss 15 games.


Also people seem to forget Welker's knee going out. The only difference between that and Amendola missing the whole season because of a broken arm is because Welker did it in the last game of the season and Amendola did it week 1.

 

[VJCPatriot]

It's an exciting time. It's a terrifying time. Common sense dictates that you don't want to rely on rookies playing too large a percentage of the snaps. But common sense goes out the window if the rookies earn that playing time on the field.

For example let's rewind to 2010. The Patriots drafted Gronkowski and Hernandez in the 2nd and 4th rounds respectively. Previously the Pats had swung on 1st round picks at TE with Graham and Watson and let's just say they hit doubles instead of homeruns. Unexpectedly Gronk and Hernandez turned out to both be homeruns, Hernandez at the very least a triple in terms of talent and ability to threaten the defense.

Now we are in 2013. The Pats have struggled to fill the wideout position through the draft but this year, presumably with some input from Josh McDaniels, they draft two receivers in rounds 2 and 4 respectively. They also picked up a UDFA receiver who was little heralded but instantly earned recognition from the moment training camp started and continues to do well into the preseason. So this year the Pats essentially have 3 tickets, the most ready meal ticket appears to be Kenbrell Thompkins.

We might have something special on our hands with these rookies as they beat out a bunch of free agent vets that we signed for competition. And at the very least, we have a solid veteran in Amendola for Brady as his goto guy. I think the picture is looking pretty rosy right now all considering. Sure there will be bumps along the way, but we needed to get younger, faster, stronger at the WR position, and the Pats have done just that. How it ultimately turns out nobody knows. But there is definitely cause for anticipation.

 

[AzPatsFan]

It's an exciting time. It's a terrifying time. Common sense dictates that you don't want to rely on rookies playing too large a percentage of the snaps. But common sense goes out the window if the rookies earn that playing time on the field.

For example let's rewind to 2010. The Patriots drafted Gronkowski and Hernandez in the 2nd and 4th rounds respectively. Previously the Pats had swung on 1st round picks at TE with Graham and Watson and let's just say they hit doubles instead of homeruns. Unexpectedly Gronk and Hernandez turned out to both be homeruns, Hernandez at the very least a triple in terms of talent and ability to threaten the defense.

Now we are in 2013. The Pats have struggled to fill the wideout position through the draft but this year, presumably with some input from Josh McDaniels, they draft two receivers in rounds 2 and 4 respectively. They also picked up a UDFA receiver who was little heralded but instantly earned recognition from the moment training camp started and continues to do well into the preseason. So this year the Pats essentially have 3 tickets, the most ready meal ticket appears to be Kenbrell Thompkins.

We might have something special on our hands with these rookies as they beat out a bunch of free agent vets that we signed for competition. And at the very least, we have a solid veteran in Amendola for Brady as his goto guy. I think the picture is looking pretty rosy right now all considering. Sure there will be bumps along the way, but we needed to get younger, faster, stronger at the WR position, and the Pats have done just that. How it ultimately turns out nobody knows. But there is definitely cause for anticipation.

In all these posts there is an artificiality to them. The receivers available to Brady in the most common 12 lineup are Gronk, Amendola and whover. That is two good ones and then a guy out to prove himself from a somewhat talented list of Thompkins, Amendola, and Boyce. In the 21, it is Gronk and your choice of Fells, Sudfeld, Hoomanuwanui, and then Amendola. Once again, hardly not any NFL proven targets with at least two very good targets out of three.

 

[captain stone]

Ball inside the 5-yard line, you line up with Dobson on the outside, Gronk and Sudfeld at the TE, with Ridley and Vereen in the backfield. You don't know which RB the ball could be handed off to, and Vereen especially could leak out for a pass. Meanwhile, you have two gigantic TEs and another very tall WR out there as red zone targets, so a pass play would be ripe against what would almost certainly be a heavy defensive set.

I like that scenario.

As do I. I want me more Vereen/Ridley backfields.

 

[captain stone]

I wonder though if its fair to call Amendola injury prone...

It's entirely fair to call Amendola injury-prone.