if jackson can stay healthy he will definitely be more productive than stallworth was or ever would be. jackson has all the tools to be a stud at WR. stallworth never lived up to the potential that he had. i don't know why he's bounced around the last few years from NO to Philly to NE and now to Cleveland. i thought he was supposed to great speed and he does have good speed, but from what i saw he just wasn't a great route runner and in the past has dropped too many balls. that said, he will be 28 this coming season, while chad jackson will be 23.
say there were no injury concerns going into last season (2007) and you had a choice of who you thought would be a more productive #2 receiver. would you pick stallworth or jackson? i would've picked jackson. he has the speed to beat guys downfield, leaping ability to grab jump balls, and in college just had a knack for getting open and making plays.
if he was healthy last year, just think of how this could have affected the deep ball to moss. stallworth was supposed to be a deep threat but was really never used that way, probably because he didnt have the speed to do it. imagine having two guys lined up who can potentially go deep. in the playoffs what the teams did was try to eliminate moss and our deep game by putting double coverage on him. and they were successful as he only had a combined two receptions in the divisional and conference championship games. if they had jackson with the ability to go deep and keep the defense honest, it would open the field up more for randy.
all in all, my point is i know it will be extremely hard to reproduce what they did last year, but i think the pats' offense has the potential to be more productive if jackson can live up to being that solid #2 receiver. then again, i would just like to see him stay healthy for the whole year.