Boston TE Party No More. How will Offense Look?

[MTM558]

First of all, I am aware that there is a thread titled "Offensive Expectations," yet I felt that with the Hernandez release it would be a good time to restart a discussion now that the picture has gotten clearer. If the moderators feel that this thread would be best served as a merged one within the "Offensive Expectations" thread, please do so.


Now then... things certainly escalated quickly, didn't they? From intense media scrutiny, to being arrested, arraigned, and now released. Aaron Hernandez has played his last down as a Patriot, and maybe even in the NFL. To go along with the loss of Hernandez, the Patriots have Gronkowski on the mend for possibly a good part of the season, Ballard is still recovering, and Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd, and Deion Branch have all departed.

The Patriots' Offense this will have have to pull off some magic work to even come close to resembling past years' up-tempo high-octane assault.

 

[patsinthesnow]

If Sudfeld's legit, keep the 2 TE look with Ballard, Sudfeld.

If not, I'm in favor of 1 TE, 3 WR with Ballard at TE, Jenkins, Dobson out wide, and Amendola in the slot.

 

[StrawHatPatriot]

If Brady can pull it off and win the Big Game, then he might be the greatest QB ever.

No Lloyd, Welker is traded, Gronk can't help but get injured, no Woodhead, Amendola has only played one full season in his career so far (and that wasn't even under Josh McDaniels), etc.

And the running game (IMO) was a product of the no huddle passing. I don't think they'll be that good if the pass isn't clicking - well, unless they are playing the Bills or something.

In short, it won't look pretty.

 

[edboc]

On the flip side, this also will put pressure on the defense to improve significantly to keep games close, which may be a good thing. This will push the defense to be less dependent on the offense to win games, and have less of a "Brady will bail us out of this one" mentality.

 

[Archeryaddict12]

I think we see a combo of gronk, Ballard and sudfeld for the first few weeks. If the D gels and the O keeps pounding like we always do, I expect a better season overall than last year. This team is starting to look scary good IMO. I seriously think we have a really successful season.

 

[VrabelJr]

Injuries and events like today create opportunities. The Patriot Way™ is that when your number gets called, you step up. Training camp will be the start of this. Who will capitalize on Gronk's injury and Hernandez's release? It might be a TE, it might be WR(s).

 

[JMC00]

Amendola has only played one full season in his career so far (and that wasn't even under Josh McDaniels), etc.

People are still throwing this untrue statement around?

Games Played

'09- 14 games (was a healthy inactive the first 2 games of the season)
'10- 16 games
'11- 1 game (had the new IR rules been in effect wouldn't have missed 15 games)
'12- 11 games

It's not like this guy is Bob Sanders or something.

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

Injuries and events like today create opportunities. The Patriot Way™ is that when your number gets called, you step up. Training camp will be the start of this. Who will capitalize on Gronk's injury and Hernandez's release? It might be a TE, it might be WR(s).

...was just gonna say that...opportunity is knocking for someone, a HUGE opportunity. This team may change it's offensive approach, however it would do that, but there is a huge void left to be filled, the house needs to be modified. The game evolves and we have coach that has all options on the table.

Like i said in the past, I want justice to be served.

As far as this football team goes, understand the distraction will be temporary, there are a lot of players on that team accountable to one another and damn hungry I bet for another SB...

 

[Kontradiction]

Well, right now, it doesn't look good. This offense will be rolling into training camp with the most question marks of any Patriots offense since the 2006 version. How will Gronk heal? Will he be ready for the start of the season? Can Ballard return to 2011 form? Is Sudfeld any good with pads on? Will Boyce and Dobson understand the offense? If so, can they contribute? Will the Pats bolster the O-Line over the 2012 version? Is Vereen and/or Washington capable of replacing Woodhead's production?

 

[Ivan]

Gronkowski isn't gone he will just be delayed in starting the season, and they have Ballard to go with him, so even though Hernandez is gone they will still have a good TE unit and I would simply expect them to use Gronkowski more as the receiving TE with Ballard in Gronk's role and Vereen and Edelman to offset the plays they would have run for Hernandez. Big loss talent wise but I'm glad he is gone as they don't need the distractions his circus was goin g to bring them over the next year, and they can always find a smallr faster TE in next year's draft to replace him fully.


The sky is falling mentality is no big surprise but imo it is a huge overreaction to the situation, the Patriots have had one of the best offenses in football for over a decade and the loss of Hernandez isn't going to change that, they may not be as explosive of prolific as they have been but they will still be one of the highest scoring teams in football and their defense really needed to take the next step anyways and will be relied upon more heavily this season then they have been for some time, which is fine with me as they need to be balanced in terms of run/pass and offense /defense anyways.

 

[JMC00]

Don't sleep on Brandon Ford either

 

[Bruins29]

We have the best blocking group of TE's in the league. We have stellar Tackles. A all-pro guard who will be healthy.

To compliment, we have a legit top 5 Running back and a great compliment of talented guys behind him.

This team should be a great running team which will do two things. Save Brady's arm and open up the opportunity for a ton more play action. This team could be killer in the ground and pound especially with opposing defenses knowing they have to respect Brady.

 

[Big-T]

Saw a Tweet the other day that fits here quite well, it went along the lines of - a lot of teams don't even have starting TEs as good as Hooman & Fells.

So having them behind Ballard and Gronk (who we still don't know when he will be back, it could be week 1 for all we know) isn't exactly a sky is falling situation to be in, is it?

The media/other teams fans will try and make it out that the Patriots are falling apart, they have no receivers etc but as is always the case in recent years they'll still put up 30+ a game average.

 

[Deus Irae]

People are still throwing this untrue statement around?

Games Played

'09- 14 games (was a healthy inactive the first 2 games of the season)
'10- 16 games
'11- 1 game (had the new IR rules been in effect wouldn't have missed 15 games)
'12- 11 games

It's not like this guy is Bob Sanders or something.

He's played 16 games once. How was that poster's statement untrue?

 

[Deus Irae]

Well, right now, it doesn't look good. This offense will be rolling into training camp with the most question marks of any Patriots offense since the 2006 version. How will Gronk heal? Will he be ready for the start of the season? Can Ballard return to 2011 form? Is Sudfeld any good with pads on? Will Boyce and Dobson understand the offense? If so, can they contribute? Will the Pats bolster the O-Line over the 2012 version? Is Vereen and/or Washington capable of replacing Woodhead's production?

They'll be fine. They still have Welker to bail them out. Oh, wait....

 

[tonyto3690]

People are way overestimating the schematic changes.

We're still going to run 2 TE sets a good amount of the time. Ballard is very good and between Sudfield/Hooman/Fells, there will be a second TE on the field a lot.

I'm sure we'll see more 3 WR sets than we otherwise would have seen, and our TE sets without Hern/Gronk is obviously not nearly as effective, but schematically it's our best option.

Our WR depth is very thin and the top end isn't especially great to begin with.

Best to just run the ball. All of our TEs remaining are good blockers.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

First off: the "Boston TE Party" of 81 & 87 (i.e., GRONKnandez) is no more. But the idea of TEs being the stars of the passing game is not.

...was just gonna say that...opportunity is knocking for someone, a HUGE opportunity. This team may change it's offensive approach, however it would do that, but there is a huge void left to be filled, the house needs to be modified. The game evolves and we have coach that has all options on the table.

The problem is there's no one on this team who can do exactly what Hernandez does. IMO, the guy who comes closest to being able to replicate what Hernandez can do in space, though, is Edelman.

 

[TruthSeeker]

If Brady can pull it off and win the Big Game, then he might be the greatest QB ever.

No Lloyd, Welker is traded, Gronk can't help but get injured, no Woodhead, Amendola has only played one full season in his career so far (and that wasn't even under Josh McDaniels), etc.

And the running game (IMO) was a product of the no huddle passing. I don't think they'll be that good if the pass isn't clicking - well, unless they are playing the Bills or something.

In short, it won't look pretty.

Tom Brady (and a good defense), won a SB with Troy Brown as his best WR, and David Patten as the #2 WR.

Tom Brady got to the AFCC Game with Reche Caldwell and Jabbar Gaffney as his top 2 receivers.

I think despite the losses/people missing games, The Pats will still have a top 5 offense in the NFL this season.

Brady doesn't care who's out there, he just hits whoever is open.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

I hope we run a lot more 2 RB sets where we move Vereen to many different spots on offense much like we used AH. Wide, slot, halfback, bubble screens, quick slants.

 

[jmt57]

Danny Amendola and the Running Backs. Sounds like the name of a 50's-era rock and roll band.

It Is What It Is » What happens to Patriots offense without Aaron Hernandez?

Ultimately, as we wrote in the days leading up the departure of Welker, if there is an offense that could make the transition into a post-Welker landscape, it’s the Patriots. The loss of Hernandez feels the same way. It’s important to remember that while there’s been plenty of continuity over the last decade-plus — the Patriots have had the same coach-quarterback combo since 2001, the longest current run in the NFL — they’ve made some tweaks to the system at least three times under Belichick. (The initial move from Drew Bledsoe to Brady, the creation of the shock and awe offense of 2007, and the post-Randy Moss era that incorporated the young tight ends and signaled the move to uptempo football.) On each occasion, the transition wasn’t exactly seamless, but the Patriots were able to make it work in large part because of the quarterback.​