Those players were together for the first 4 games of the 2 TEs rookie years. Those were also the first 4 games for Welker after blowing out his knee.
Of course moving forward from that, the 2 TE offense put up some of the highest scoring totals in NFL history.
Yes, the important thing isn't how many good wideouts versus tight ends they have, but how many viable pass-catchers overall -- and how many impact receivers. When they had Hernandez, Gronk and Welker at full-strength, they were historically good.
The common thread between those teams and the 2007 teams was a dominating touchdown-making receiver -- Moss in 2007, Gronk on the later teams. When Gronk is healthy, this team scores 30-35 points a game even with a very pedestrian group around him. Even last year, they averaged 32 ppg in Gronk's seven games. Their overall average was 27.8 points, good for third in the NFL. Their average in the nine games without Gronk was 24.4 ppg.
We're still likely to see that kind of split this year, if Gronk misses a lot of games. The difference is that, with Brady getting all the receivers he's familiar with back, and maybe adding one or two more viable guys like LaFell, they're likely to score a lot more in the games with Gronk, and fare somewhat better also without him.
Last year, albeit in a small sample size, they still averaged 31.6 points in the three regular-season games after Gronkowski's injury. Add the playoff games and the average is still 30.8 points per game after Gronk went down. Clearly the team was better offensively later in the year, as the offensive line got in rhythm and Brady started clicking more with Edelman. With everyone except (so far) Ryan Wendell and Blount back, there's no reason to expect a major drop off next year.
The problem is fixing the basic pattern of this team: they pile on offensively against weak teams, and struggle against good ones. It's not just that they have the occasional clunker game on offense (six points against Cincy, sixteen against Denver, thirteen against the Jets), but that they haven't been balanced enough to have the defense and special teams compensate for those days. With the defensive changes this year, they should at least be able to hang in there in games like the second Miami contest, the Carolina game, the second Jets game -- they should be able to win if they score twenty points.
But if they can add just a little more receiving talent, they could be amazing again. One more viable receiver like LaFell and maybe another threat at tight end (from the draft?) could put them right back in business as a 30-plus point scoring team. It's really exciting.
