I doubt Amendola will be near 100% even in 3-4 weeks because these high ankle sprains take a long, long time to fully heal, but for the purpose of debate (instead of wide speculation about Amendola's effectiveness) let's assume Amendola is healthy come playoff time...the reality is he is almost always banged up anyways and rarely playing without any ailment.
I expect the Patriots to use their strengths like they usually do, which means a lot of targets for Lewis and White, while I think we will see a pretty heavy workload for Blount on running and play action downs. Provided Bennett stays healthy, he will be in for most of the snaps. Clearly Edelman and Hogan will be the #1 and #2 receivers in terms of snap counts and targets. Given that we probably won't see a ton of 4/5 WR sets, that leaves Amendola and Mitchell splitting the reps for the #3 WR. Who do trust more between Amendola and Mitchell, and who do you think should get the majority of snaps in the postseason?
Amendola has proven to be a very clutch player who almost always makes difficult catches with the game on the line. I don't have stats, but I can't remember any targets on 3rd down late in a close game where he didn't make a catch if the ball was anywhere near him. He also made that huge 4th quarter TD against Thomas in SB 49. Its clear Brady has tremendous confidence in DA as a 3rd/4th target. Amendola is a sure handed veteran who has a deep grasp of the offense and rarely fumbles...he is as good a route runner as they have.
Mitchell has done very little to show he isn't ready for crunch time. I think it's obvious that from a skills standpoint, he has a higher upside than Amendola. He is able to beat better corners, has awesome body control, and has shown great soft hands, rarely dropping anything close. In addition, he has better speed and seems to be bigger (even though he is much smaller than he appears to be when attacking balls.). The only thing is he's a rookie and there could be some unknown in his play, and the postseason would be a costly time to find about any deficiencies, such as running the wrong route, fumbling, or just getting lost in the pressure and intense, physical defensive style. Think 2010 playoff meltdown to Jets when a bunch of rookies and first time playoff guys lost their composure.
Thoughts?
