If there is any semblance of truth to this being an ACL (and other ligaments), and all indications as I've seen the play over and over seem to be that there just might be, what we are losing most of all is the yards after catch. There are a lot of good route runners and good hands on the team. But what nobody does better than Jules (and I haven't seen every Cooks game) is yards after catch. He's one of the biggest reasons why NE was tops in the league in YAC last season. That guy is elusive and has great strength to break tackles when defenders do manage to get their hands on him. He moves the chains probably better than anyone in the league. We get that in Gronk too in a different way, but Jules was Brady's primary third down guy. I don't see that as much in Hogan (though I think he's going to have a monster season statistically), I would think we get good YAC from Cooks because he's just so explosive, who knows what we get out of Mitchell with that nagging knee, and Amendola has lost his burst. He's mostly a clutch catch, precision route runner type now. So big loss for NE's offense if Jules misses the season.
I knew something had to put a damper on things. There was all this buzz and the pessimist in me couldn't shake the feeling that something had to give. In this case, it just happened to be Jules' knee. This f-ing sucks. I believed that injuries and bad OL play would be the only things that could stop NE, similarly to 2014, 2015, 2016. NE still should have no problem reaching the promised land if they don't sustain many other key injuries, but this definitely makes the offense a little less scary. DC's around the league must be breathing a little easier, and the haters are probably loving it. F*CK. *Sigh*
