Brady led the league in passing yards last year with the likes of Andre Davis and Tim Dwight playing major roles in the offense. They won a Super Bowl with Fred Coleman as their number 3 wideout. Moreover they won two Super Bowls with Antowain Smith carrying the mail. I'm not terribly worried about their offense. I'd be a lot more worried if we were losing Bruschi or Vrabel or Harrison.
The one thing I was worried about this year was the lack of a downfield threat, with Bethel, Davis and even Givens gone (Givens was a good long-ball receiver). Gabriel looks like he's a fast guy who'll at least require a look from a safety in the cover-2. That's really all the Pats need. They've got lots of guys who run nice underneath routes (Brown, Childress, Faulk), good tight ends to challenge the deep middle... what they were really missing was a speed receiver or two to run fly and corner routes. If Gabriel can catch those routes, that's big for us. That will force the opposition to cover the whole field, and with Brady back there, that's a nightmare for opposing defenses. Especially if Maroney is as good as he looks. There are going to be a lot of corners cheating a step or two closer to the line because of him, so a big, physical receiver who can beat them at the line and then get deep -- that's potentially a very big weapon for us.
