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This should probably be flagged for a late hit after everyone has piled on, but also consider:
Cleaning out Super Bowl XLIX notebook
The Patriots are the youngest team to ever win a Super Bowl, with an average age of 25.2 years.
and
The New England Patriots Have the Youngest Roster of AFC Contenders
Of the twelve playoff teams from 2014, the New England Patriots have the third youngest unit, behind the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks. This implies that the Patriots have the youngest roster out of the AFC teams that were in the playoffs.
That's a good sign.
So tell me again how this team has no potential room for growth and improvement...
The amount of young talent on this team is ridiculous, and at every level. Here's a list of key contributors 26 or younger:
DL: Brown, Easley, Siliga, Sheard, Jones
LB: Hightower, Collins (hopefully Bostic joins this list as a key contributor)
DB: Butler, Harmon, Richards, Wilson, Ebner...I guess we could include Ryan too.
I'm not including potential guys like Flowers or Grissom or Johnson or Coleman. Every guy above plays significant snaps for us. That's almost an entire starting D of young, growing talent. Maybe put Easley at DE and put Sheard at LB, and that's a pretty solid defense. Certainly better than the actual Colts D.
OL: Stork, Andrews, Jackson, Mason, Kline
QB: Jimmy G
RB: Lewis, White, Bolden
WR: Dobson, Martin
TE: Gronk (still only 26), Williams
Again, that's almost an entire line-up you could field. Weak without any tackles (Solder and Cannon are 27 this year, thus missing the arbitrary cut-off), but solid at every level. Maybe not Super Bowl-caliber, but I wouldn't be surprised if the above team won our division.
There are a bunch of other areas for the team to "grow" such as improved depth leading to more rested guys (Sheard allowing Jones and Ninko more rest, the deep DT mix), or star players just getting to their primes who still haven't touched their ceilings yet (Gronk, Lewis, Hightower, Collins), or how much better guys will be once they get more comfortable in this scheme (Sheard, Lewis, Martin, Williams), to guys with bigger roles (Siliga, Butler, Kline, Dobson, Harmon), to true rookies who are growing almost daily, if not weekly (Andrews, Jackson, Mason, Brown, Richards).
And I think the OP is way too quick to dismiss the impact of additions like Chandler after only 3 games. It's early, he's still adjusting to having a QB who throws fast balls, and he's learning a new system. Consider after 3 games last season, LaFell had 4 catches for 46 yards and 0 TDs (Chandler has 6 for 49 and 1 TD if anyone cares). Maybe Chandler won't turn into a weapon. Maybe he'll get benched. But 3 games is way too early to make that kind of call.
Overall, this is a really balanced team playing at a very high level, but it's still very early on, and the coaches will turn things up. Googs talked about how certain things have been implemented to help the young OL so the offense hasn't even started firing on all cylinders yet. The D always gets better in the second half of the season too so there's definitely room to get better, and this coaching staff has a history of making it happen.
Cleaning out Super Bowl XLIX notebook
The Patriots are the youngest team to ever win a Super Bowl, with an average age of 25.2 years.
and
The New England Patriots Have the Youngest Roster of AFC Contenders
Of the twelve playoff teams from 2014, the New England Patriots have the third youngest unit, behind the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks. This implies that the Patriots have the youngest roster out of the AFC teams that were in the playoffs.
That's a good sign.
So tell me again how this team has no potential room for growth and improvement...
The amount of young talent on this team is ridiculous, and at every level. Here's a list of key contributors 26 or younger:
DL: Brown, Easley, Siliga, Sheard, Jones
LB: Hightower, Collins (hopefully Bostic joins this list as a key contributor)
DB: Butler, Harmon, Richards, Wilson, Ebner...I guess we could include Ryan too.
I'm not including potential guys like Flowers or Grissom or Johnson or Coleman. Every guy above plays significant snaps for us. That's almost an entire starting D of young, growing talent. Maybe put Easley at DE and put Sheard at LB, and that's a pretty solid defense. Certainly better than the actual Colts D.
OL: Stork, Andrews, Jackson, Mason, Kline
QB: Jimmy G
RB: Lewis, White, Bolden
WR: Dobson, Martin
TE: Gronk (still only 26), Williams
Again, that's almost an entire line-up you could field. Weak without any tackles (Solder and Cannon are 27 this year, thus missing the arbitrary cut-off), but solid at every level. Maybe not Super Bowl-caliber, but I wouldn't be surprised if the above team won our division.
There are a bunch of other areas for the team to "grow" such as improved depth leading to more rested guys (Sheard allowing Jones and Ninko more rest, the deep DT mix), or star players just getting to their primes who still haven't touched their ceilings yet (Gronk, Lewis, Hightower, Collins), or how much better guys will be once they get more comfortable in this scheme (Sheard, Lewis, Martin, Williams), to guys with bigger roles (Siliga, Butler, Kline, Dobson, Harmon), to true rookies who are growing almost daily, if not weekly (Andrews, Jackson, Mason, Brown, Richards).
And I think the OP is way too quick to dismiss the impact of additions like Chandler after only 3 games. It's early, he's still adjusting to having a QB who throws fast balls, and he's learning a new system. Consider after 3 games last season, LaFell had 4 catches for 46 yards and 0 TDs (Chandler has 6 for 49 and 1 TD if anyone cares). Maybe Chandler won't turn into a weapon. Maybe he'll get benched. But 3 games is way too early to make that kind of call.
Overall, this is a really balanced team playing at a very high level, but it's still very early on, and the coaches will turn things up. Googs talked about how certain things have been implemented to help the young OL so the offense hasn't even started firing on all cylinders yet. The D always gets better in the second half of the season too so there's definitely room to get better, and this coaching staff has a history of making it happen.
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