"Targeting lack of weapons for Tom Brady’s decline growing tiresome" (?)

sean10mm said:

The Patriots are near the top of the league in passes dropped.

Can't get much simpler than "they don't catch."

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Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.

Also, why has no one else commented on the utter and complete lack of support given by the author of the article? I always heard that was a basic thing in argument: present a premise, then give specific examples to support it. The author of this article seems to subscribe to the millennialesque theory of say it, say it again, then repeat it a few more times, and there's your credibility because you said it five different ways.

Sicilian said:

Which also gives me some hope, because drops are something that can turn around in a hurry. Most of them (that I've noticed) are mental errors, flat drops. There haven't been that many times when it was a tough catch with good coverage and they didn't come down with it. And it's been everybody, even Edelman. It's hard to predict, but if they cut that number in HALF, it makes a huge difference. So many of those drops seemed to happen on 3rd down, or would have been first downs. If this offense can stop killing drives with unforced errors, it will go a LONG way.

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It's too bad the team can't pay our receivers so we could get professionals who would do the most fundamental part of their job, i.e. catch the ball when it hits them in the hands.

n6249c said:

You are being way too over simplistic. First, BB and McD aren’t going to let protecting any snowflake’s reputation get in the way of trying to win football games. Second, it’s easier to replace WRs then TB even if both are playing below potential.

You did get one thing partly right:


It seems Brady is done with everybody but his two binkies, Squirrel and Sweetfeet. Not clear to me that the rest of them have been any worse about Jaking it that Brady himself, but it’s his trust in them that matters, and if the chemistry hasn’t gelled he seems to just trust nobody but his binkies.

I’d say Brady hasn’t done his part to develop the chemistry. He got too ****y thinking he had the answers to the test and quit putting in the offseason seasons with new guys the way he did with Jules and even Flash. Used to be Brady made everyone around him better. This year he hasn’t passed that test.

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I got everything right. You've got pretty much everything wrong. It's been that way for some time with your posts. I mean, it doesn't get much more stupid than claiming that Brady is Jaking things.

Chevy said:

Tom Brady will never fall off the cliff. Instead, he's got his ropes, carabiners, and pitons so he can descend at his own rate.

In some ways this is good - he won't hit rock-bottom all at once. But, it's also bad since the gradual decline may cause the team to wait a little too long.

Either way, the Pats finished 12-4, another AFCE Championship, another playoff run, another chance at the big trophy. We're *****ing while 31 other fan bases are jealous.

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You might be slightly off on the number of franchises that are jealous at the moment. I'd say there's a pretty decent chance eight or ten of them are mostly or entirely free of jealousy of us at this specific juncture. Hopefully that changes over the next few weeks, but today? Not a lot of jealousy from several other teams right now.

Deus Irae said:

You, the viewer, don't usually know the order of the reads. But, even if you get the order correct, you have to know the timing, because:

• Being open is meaningless if the QB is under too much pressure to get you the ball, and
  
• "Wide open" isn't usefully wide open if you're not early enough in the progression that it matters, and
• "Wide open" isn't usefully wide open if you've run the wrong ****ing route, and
• "Wide open" isn't wide open if you don't get open until after the QB has looked at you when you were covered, and
• If you've been Jaking it out there, finally getting "wide open" after the QB is tired of you blowing plays, is meaningless, because he's done with you for the time being, as he should be.

It has always been thus. It's only during the struggling times like now, just as in 2013, that people lose their brains and start forgetting such obvious truths.


Now, does that mean that Brady's been perfect, that he's not blown any plays, and that every single failure is on someone else? Absolutely not. Does that mean that Brady hasn't made more mistakes this year than in the past? No. But it does mean that people need to use their freakin' heads about what they're seeing, rather than just spouting off the nonsense about guys being wide open all the time. Because the bottom line is this:

Either the problem is with the receiving corps, or both BB and McD are throwing an entire offense under the bus in order to protect the reputation of their starting QB, because it's the receivers (and linemen) who are getting benched, not the QB.

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Wait - you mean it doesn't do the quarterback any good if the receiver gets open four seconds into the play as the quarterback is being driven into the dirt?

TN patriot fan said:

Wait - you mean it doesn't do the quarterback any good if the receiver gets open four seconds into the play as the quarterback is being driven into the dirt?

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I know, right? I'm sure we're all surprised to learn that.

mosi said:

Yeah, poor Watson is just done. Cooked liked the turkey in Christmas Vacation.

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But hey, he gets his obligatory OPI penalty every game now, so there's that.

KontradictioN said:

I’m over 90% Irish.

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You’ve got more than I do. I’m a mutt but 50% Irish/Scottish

as Gronk did before him

TN patriot fan said:

But hey, he gets his obligatory OPI penalty every game now, so there's that.

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luuked said:

The truth is somewhere in the middle. Everyone saying WRs are not open is clearly not (re)watching games while everyone who argues that Brady has reached a cliff is also a bozo.

Reality is that execution has been extremely inconsistent. And the reasons for this are more nuanced than pointing the finger at any player or entire unit. Sometimes a WR screwed up a route or drops a pass, sometimes Brady overthrows or underthrows them and other times -- although less frequently in the last few weeks -- he is under so much pressure that he has to get rid of the ball even though someone would be open a second later.

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And lack of TE involvement in passing game and general ineptitude of running game are both compounding the problem

TN patriot fan said:

You might be slightly off on the number of franchises that are jealous at the moment. I'd say there's a pretty decent chance eight or ten of them are mostly or entirely free of jealousy of us at this specific juncture. Hopefully that changes over the next few weeks, but today? Not a lot of jealousy from several other teams right now.

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Agree ... focusing on this year. But, I was referring more to the complete body of work.

Brady has had mediocre to bad receiver in the past and been far more productive.

Just look at 2006 when the #1 receiver was Reche Caldwell. That is the most extreme, but there was other years where Brady had mediocre talent or his go to guys were injured for large portions of the year.

How about 2013 where Brady spent a large portion of the first half of the season with Aaron Dobson and Kembrell Thompkins as his primary receivers past Edelman and Michael Hoomanawanui as his TE (both Amedola and Gronk were injured for large portions of that season)?

Or how about 2010 with Welker coming off an ACL and a shell of himself, Moss broken down, Branch not there until the trade deadline, Edelman not Edelman yet, and Gronk and Hernandez as rookies and not nearly as productive as they would become.

I would argue that the 2005 receiving corp isn't much better than the current one.

Even last year, beyond Edelman and the handful of games they had Gordon, they didn't have much in terms of talent. Hogan inexplicably had a huge fall from grace. Gronk was a shell of himself. Dorsett flashed at times, but was not much of anything until late in the season and the playoffs. Patterson was good for a big play here and there, but was never good for more than a couple of catches a game. Allen wasn't even that good of a blocker, never mind he almost never caught a ball in a game.

I don't think Brady is done. I think he is done being elite. But I think people do make too many excuses for him this year and refuse to admit that age may be starting to get the best of him.

Rob0729 said:

Brady has had mediocre to bad receiver in the past and been far more productive.

Just look at 2006 when the #1 receiver was Reche Caldwell. That is the most extreme, but there was other years where Brady had mediocre talent or his go to guys were injured for large portions of the year.

How about 2013 where Brady spent a large portion of the first half of the season with Aaron Dobson and Kembrell Thompkins as his primary receivers past Edelman and Michael Hoomanawanui as his TE (both Amedola and Gronk were injured for large portions of that season)?

Or how about 2010 with Welker coming off an ACL and a shell of himself, Moss broken down, Branch not there until the trade deadline, Edelman not Edelman yet, and Gronk and Hernandez as rookies and not nearly as productive as they would become.

I would argue that the 2005 receiving corp isn't much better than the current one.

Even last year, beyond Edelman and the handful of games they had Gordon, they didn't have much in terms of talent. Hogan inexplicably had a huge fall from grace. Gronk was a shell of himself. Dorsett flashed at times, but was not much of anything until late in the season and the playoffs. Patterson was good for a big play here and there, but was never good for more than a couple of catches a game. Allen wasn't even that good of a blocker, never mind he almost never caught a ball in a game.

I don't think Brady is done. I think he is done being elite. But I think people do make too many excuses for him this year and refuse to admit that age may be starting to get the best of him.

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I haven't bothered looking at the 2013 numbers in a while, because people got so ridiculously over the top around here. But the reality is that Brady was putting up better numbers with this year's group than with the 2013 group. I'd expect that to have changed, either closing or falling behind, over the course of the year. But the "why" is what matters. The "why" is that the receivers in 2013 got better as the year went along, with players returning from injury and the like, while the opposite has been the case in 2019.

As for 2006, come on. As comparatively bad as it was when looking at the entire post-2004 era, it was still much better than this year's group.

TEs: Graham and Watson

WRs: Brown, Caldwell, Gaffney

RBs: Dillon, Maroney (in his strong rookie season), Faulk

Outside of Edelman, not a single member of the 2019 offensive skill group would have been a starter on that 2006 team.

mgteich said:

as Gronk did before him

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The minor difference being that Gronk actually also made plays...

Chevy said:

Agree ... focusing on this year. But, I was referring more to the complete body of work.

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No doubt that we will always and forever generate jealousy when it comes to the bigger picture.

Putting this into perspective makes what the Seahawks have done so much more impressive. They've really had it bad considering the starters they had to begin with.

50-yard-line said:

...So, here goes: I agree with this article. Swap Harry and Brown, and we'd be wishing we had drafted Harry. Same with Samuel and others...

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I very, Very strongly disagree with this supposition.

...It's on the scheming, on Brady (injury, attitude, age-decline?), on rotten luck (Gronk's timing, Develin's injury, Wynn's injury, Cajuste's injury, Froholdt's injury, Andrew's injury, even Johnson's injury, Gordon's tail-off, the AB debacle)...

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Don't forget Billy's horrible, Horrible drafting too.

scott99 said:

It's also mind boggling and incredibly frustrating that Brady, who used to go by the mantra of "throw to the open man", doesn't seem to do that anymore, all he does is key in on Edelman & White. If you take them away, game over, and that's on Brady. I've seen many situations where guys were wide open, and he forces it to Edelman or White. The pick 6 was a prime example, Sanu was WIDE open on that play, 15 yards down the middle.

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He really wasn't as open as it might look.

upstater1 said:

His problem is that he has forgotten plays. This seems to be a running theme this year, players not knowing the plays. It was clear 2 weeks ago that Sanu did not know the play when he blew the block on the swing pass to Harry.

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It wasn't that he didn't know the play; it was that he made a "business decision" regarding his complete lack of anything whatsoever resembling Effort. Disgraceful.

Chevy said:

Either way, the Pats finished 12-4, another AFCE Championship, another playoff run, another chance at the big trophy. We're *****ing while 31 other fan bases are jealous.

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Why in the world should the fans of the 49ers, Queefs or Murderer-Worshippers be jealous? At least one of those teams are going to the SB, if not 2 of them...and we're not.

BTW, 2019 Patsies = Worst 12-4 team in the 41-year history of the 16-game regular season.

KontradictioN said:

Yeah I found out that the rest of my bloodline is English and I also have a little Viking in me too. The funniest part is that my dad always told people he was descended from a royal Irish bloodline. I haven’t shared this with him, but that’s nowhere near true.

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Was there ever any royalty in Ireland? Wasn’t Ireland based on family klans and the larger more powerful ones had the castles?

I’m no Irish history expert but I did a 10 day tour in 2018. Castles and ruins everywhere.

I could have sworn I saw the ruins of the KontradictioN castle...

Deus Irae said:

I haven't bothered looking at the 2013 numbers in a while, because people got so ridiculously over the top around here. But the reality is that Brady was putting up better numbers with this year's group than with the 2013 group. I'd expect that to have changed, either closing or falling behind, over the course of the year. But the "why" is what matters. The "why" is that the receivers in 2013 got better as the year went along, with players returning from injury and the like, while the opposite has been the case in 2019.

As for 2006, come on. As comparatively bad as it was when looking at the entire post-2004 era, it was still much better than this year's group.

TEs: Graham and Watson

WRs: Brown, Caldwell, Gaffney

RBs: Dillon, Maroney (in his strong rookie season), Faulk

Outside of Edelman, not a single member of the 2019 offensive skill group would have been a starter on that 2006 team.

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2006 was the worst receiving corp we ever had. Not even close.

Troy Brown was 35 years old and done in 2006. He never played again after that season unless you count the one game he appeared in 2007 where he didn't get a single catch and only returned punts (he retired in 2008). Same with Corey Dillon who also retired after the 2006 season because he was a shell of himself.

And Gaffney did nothing in 2006 until the playoffs. He was signed in early October of 2006. And he had 11 catches for 142 yards and one TD during the 2006 regular season.

You are just looking at a bunch of names and looking at them for what they were at their peak and not how awful they were in 2006. Brown and Dillon and probably would have been cut if the Pats had any talent behind them. Gaffney didn't even really learn the offense until late December.

Reche Caldwell was the #1 WR for the Patriots in 2006. He was a low ranked #2 at best for most teams and most likely a #3 or #4 WR on most teams the way he was playing.

And Maroney had a good, not great rookie season. He had 794 rushing yards and two TDs on the ground and 194 receiving yards and one TD from the air.

Dorsett, White, and Harry could have easily started in 2006. Our receiving corp was garbage that year. I might have been able to start that year.

And I don't care about stats. You can twist them any way you like. But you have to remember in 2014, Brady had to rededicate himself to the offseason to get better. He stayed in Foxboro all offseason and even won the parking spot for the first time since the early 2000s. So even with your point, Brady recognized he was declining in skills because he wasn't working hard enough. But that time it wasn't because of age. This time, it might be.