Re: Edelman may be worth $6-$8 million, but is he worth that to a team that has Amend
I believe that targets in the context of Edelman and Amendola are significant. The reason is that it indicates opportunity, Amendola has had plenty and up until this season Edelman has had minimal.
So I will ask the question – what is it about Amendola that you consider better than Edelman is? What does he do better, and what attributes does he possess that are superior to Edelman?
In addition, why are you making it seem like Bradford is this awful QB? He is not; the problem with Bradford is he has been injury prone but in Amendola’s 2 successful seasons on the Rams Bradford played in 16 games and was very productive.
First, you stated in post 17 "Edelman is a better player." You have offered your opinion, and it seems to be that Edelman would have proved he is better if he was thrown to more. But Brady didn't throw it to him. Why was that? Could he get open? Did he have drop issues? Discounting the fact that targets is not a great statistic as a statistic, you seem to want to make this number into a causeless lack of opportunities when the subject you are deeming to be the better player may explain that lack of opportunities by his performance.
Second, if the receiver may cause those opportunities, that may explain why JE got twice the receptions over the course of the season, because he was (1) familiar and (2) healthier this year. You are talking about the future, not this year. That means (1) JE has to stay healthier (not his history) and (2) the familiarity scale will tip to favor Amendola given a year together.
Third, I didn't say Bradford is 'awful'. I gave you a pointed question that you apparently cannot answer so are twisting it to something ridiculous. Discussing 'targets', JE received passes from Brady, and Amendola received passes from an aging, beaten Bulger and a rookie Bradford (compare QBRs if you are struggling with general comparable quality from 2009-2012 as you so love statistics). The question was the quality of passes, and how you can claim JE would have done better with comparable QBs. Brady is arguably the best in the game at throwing short and intermediate passes (both touch and accuracy), which is what JE catches. If you want to claim Bradford is comparable to Brady in the quality of passes he throws, then don't expect your opinion qualifies as objective.
Finally, answering your question as posed, I don't claim Amendola is a better player. He is a pure receiver, which means as a pure receiver, when healthy, he is likely to perform in that role better with all things being equal (routes, breaks, hands, etc.). When healthy in the Bills game, Brady threw to him more. At that point, Amendola was playing his first real game with Brady. Why did Brady throw to him more in his first game on the team? Was JE getting more attention than Amendola? This year, JE was the only familiar face on the field much of the time, and after all this time he knows adjustments and the playbook better than any other player. Having spent a year on that team, familiarity with Brady will be less of an issue.
I like JE better for all the other roles he plays on the team, as that diversity has kept him around and that raises his overall value to the team, but you are kidding yourself if you believe Amendola was brought in because the Pats wrongly believed JE was not as good as a receiver and somehow discovered the truth this year after staring at JE for 4 full seasons. He is a converted QB, who has done his best to learn a new position. This year has been a perfect storm of opportunities for JE, and I hope he gets his money because it likely will never come again for him in his receiving stats. If Amendola enjoyed a similar perfect storm next year, I expect we would not be discussing receivers and who is better in that capacity.
