PHOTO/VIDEO: Thornton Bulking Up

[jdlboot14]

Who ever thought Thornton was supposed to be a WR1?? I think he's at best a WR3.
JuJu & Parker will be 1 & 2 this year, which is disappointing because neither are quick separators.
That's why I'm still pissed about JuJu for Meyers. If they give Bourne a legit shot, he could become the goto 3rd down WR for Mac.
And potentially a drafted WR, or picking up a guy like McKenzie. (Although our RB's are the actual 3rd down receivers - Rham & MonTy)

 

[RIpats88]

Honestly it's hard to rate Thornton because of how bad the offense was this year.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

I wish that were so, but his three cone time begs to differ.

Once you've shown it on the field, who looks back at combine times?

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Thornton was done dirty last year. Hope he shows up this year. The guy is very fast and can be the patriots explosive number 1. The fact that so many are writing him off is baffling

He also lost a 3rd of the year with that injury.

 

[Zuma]

Who ever thought Thornton was supposed to be a WR1?? I think he's at best a WR3.
JuJu & Parker will be 1 & 2 this year, which is disappointing because neither are quick separators.
That's why I'm still pissed about JuJu for Meyers. If they give Bourne a legit shot, he could become the goto 3rd down WR for Mac.
And potentially a drafted WR, or picking up a guy like McKenzie. (Although our RB's are the actual 3rd down receivers - Rham & MonTy)

In your opinion the coaching disfunction that was Matt Patricia and Joe Judge had no bearing on the offense ?

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Despite being bullish on Thornton, I'll admit that his performances late last season were not impressive. But his preseason was impressive, so I think he can put it back together under BOB and a better QB/OL.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Can somebody explain the position description of WR1, WR2, and WR3?

These seem to me descriptions of the productivity of each, which you find out at the end of the season in retrospect. Going into a season, saying player X will be WR1, 2, 3, ignores the role of training camp.

WR1, as Joanie Mitchell said of love, is a story told to a friend. It's second-hand. Tell me at year end how he produced, I'll tell you what "number" he was. Sometimes when there's just 1 receiver on the field it's the "Number 1". Sometimes not. Unless there's some secret explanation out there of the different duties of each "number" receiver, isn't it more like fantasy football talk than reality? Or is it a powerful predictor, e.g., if there is 1 WR on the field, last year, how often was it Meyers? 100% of the time or more like 50? And If Thornton came in and scored 15 long ball TDs and caught for 1500 yards, but wasn't on the field more than Meyers, would we say we didn't play him as a "number 1" receiver?

Thornton, like everybody else, was drafted to compete and land where he lands on the depth chart. I am sure "nobody drafted him to be a WR1" means "nobody thought he could definitely come in and set the world on fire," ok. I actually think if you draft him in the 2nd, and get the fastest man alive with the pick, however secret it is, you do have a hope that it's a "home run" of a draft pick. But these guys aren't stupid. They know they're more likely to end up with an okay pick than a once-in-a-decade pick, by definition.

Nobody is drafted or otherwise acquired to be a WR1, WR2, or WR3. They're acquired to come in, compete, and produce. Now since the season's over we can say hey, Thornton wasn't the WR1 this year, and probably wouldn't have been if uninjured.

Going beyond the WR1, WR2, WR3 stuff, we can ask why the guy with the best production was the reliable guy, as opposed to any of the burners etc.

We had speed and we couldn't make speed work, whether we mean Parker, Thornton, Ahllgholong, or any of the lesser fast guys. All those guys I just named/nicknamed were 4.4ish or sub 4.4 (actually sub 4.3). It would be nice to have combined that with a brilliant coaching staff, stout line, mature QB and so on.

I just have way more questions than answers with this situation and I can't wait to be able to say, there ya go, I knew this wasn't as bad as it looked LOL

Okay rant over

 

[VJCPatriot]

Can somebody explain the position description of WR1, WR2, and WR3?

It's more a matter of how much attention does the defense have to give that player than a positional thing.

For example, X, Y, Z receivers refer to the position of the WR in the formation and usually dictates what type of routes they will run based on the play call.

However a WR1 is basically a guy who is supposed to carry your offense and attract the attention of the defense. For example if the DC loses sleep at night and says, well I gotta scheme a way to stop player X, where player X is the WR1, this makes it a lot easier for WR2, WR3 etc. to get open and make plays.

The Patriots haven't had a true WR1 since Randy Moss. Well, unless you count Gronk, and you kind of could because he was usually the most threatening weapon on the field. It also helped that we had a HOF QB who was able to elevate the play/effectiveness of lesser options like Edelman and Amendola and make them look much better than they were. So let's say you have Gronk, Edelman, Amendola, and scrub WR, you could label them as WR1, WR2, and WR3 respectively.

Considering that Mac Jones has not looked anything close to Brady, he's going to need a WR1 option. And we have nothing like that at the moment. So currently it's easy for the defense to press up on our slow, non-dynamic WRs, make Mac Jones earn every 1st down, and eventually the drive will sputter to a FG attempt. Let's not even mention the incompetent play-calling of last season, which is clearly evident in hindsight, the talent in the WR corps isn't that great either.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

It's more a matter of how much attention does the defense have to give that player than a positional thing.

For example, X, Y, Z receivers refer to the position of the WR in the formation and usually dictates what type of routes they will run based on the play call.

However a WR1 is basically a guy who is supposed to carry your offense and attract the attention of the defense. For example if the DC loses sleep at night and says, well I gotta scheme a way to stop player X, where player X is the WR1, this makes it a lot easier for WR2, WR3 etc. to get open and make plays.

The Patriots haven't had a true WR1 since Randy Moss. Well, unless you count Gronk, and you kind of could because he was usually the most threatening weapon on the field. It also helped that we had a HOF QB who was able to elevate the play/effectiveness of lesser options like Edelman and Amendola and make them look much better than they were. So let's say you have Gronk, Edelman, Amendola, and scrub WR, you could label them as WR1, WR2, and WR3 respectively.

Considering that Mac Jones has not looked anything close to Brady, he's going to need a WR1 option. And we have nothing like that at the moment. So currently it's easy for the defense to press up on our slow, non-dynamic WRs, make Mac Jones earn every 1st down, and eventually the drive will sputter to a FG attempt. Let's not even mention the incompetent play-calling of last season, which is clearly evident in hindsight, the talent in the WR corps isn't that great either.

So it is what it looks like, by my lights, a way of saying "Somebody be gooder," with no mysterious depths of significance.

Far be it from me to have strong opinions on others' terminology, but it doesn't get us anywhere. It really does look like we're scared we won't stack up fantasy roster to fantasy roster.

All that venting done, I do think we still have a lot of speed in the house, clearly headlined (in pure speed terms) by the recent rook. I think we might misdirect a lot of our bile against receivers we're not getting the real value of. It's good to see the emphasis on O-line to date, especially at T. Of course, it's comforting to hope you just need a stockpile of middling tackles and offensive playcallers, none of that is cap-pricey. But sure, I won't say no to a reasonably priced upgrade at WR. If you want your "True Number 1" though, I think we've hit our big "that guy mooned the crowd" virtual freebie (Moss) and we can't assume that happens again. Edelmensch was homegrown from humble draft stock, and Welker was a Dolphins special teamer who BB & co. knew how to use on an every-down basis. The main point here is, talk about a known no. 1 WR, and you're almost always talking about huge spend. Can we limp through without a fantasy wideout? I think that actually might be the preferred course.

 

[State]

WR1 gets spoken to by Belichick.

 

[Wozzy]

I'm excited to see Thornton this season.

Not that I'm sure he'll become a star or even a productive player, he might not. But because he has the talent to be as good as he wants to be as a field stretcher and red zone threat. I saw glimpses of that when I attended camp last season and in spurts in the regular season.

Those saying the word "bust" are fools, not because they couldn't be correct, but because they're just guessing based off a completely dysfunctional offense in 2022.

 

[captain stone]

Once you've shown it on the field, who looks back at combine times?

But he hasn't shown it on the field either; so...

 

[WeezyFbaby]

I think most people calling Thornton a bust or have little hope is the track record of our drafting WR success. I never really expected Thornton to contribute last season, rookie offensive players rarely do for us. The injury certainly didnt help but we saw glimpses and honestly i think we can just write off last season with the coaching disaster.

I too am weary but have some optimism he can contribute in a specialty type role. Not sure hes a 1k WR but if we can get 500-600 and 4-5 TDs thats perfectly fine.

Completely understand the pessimsm given our track record at the position, but this will be a make or break season for him, i think BOB is gonna find competent ways to use his strengths