Question: Besides Tom Brady...

[Dirk3601215]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

Stephen Neal is the most important behind brady.

 

[StraightCashHomey81]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

I think Mayo is the answer here for two reasons. While Moss and Welker may be the 2nd and 3rd best overall talents on the team, Brady and the ability of the offense to run the ball and pick up the slack in the passing game would keep the offense at a championship level. If you look at the Defense, Seymour, Warren, and Wilfork are better overall talents than Mayo at this point, but

the backups at DE (Wright, Green, Smith) and NT (Brace) are much better than the rest of ILB corps (Bruschi, Guyton, Lenon, etc.) I can defintley see our defense excelling without Vince or Big Sey, but the thought of Bruschi and Lenon having to play significant snaps next to Guyton is scary. Without Mayo in the middle of the field, our D is much slower up the middle and susceptible to middle of the field passing, especially against good passing teams with good TEs, ala our biggest AFC threats in the Colts and Chargers.

 

[Liverpool_Patriot]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

Who would step in at LT if Matt Light went down? I'd hate to see Kazcur or Sea Bass up against a rusher like Freeney or Peppers.

 

[tobias funke]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

Man it's almost like football is a team-oriented sport where many parts are crucial to overall team success.

 

[Synovia]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

. . . who can the Patriots not afford to lose if there is any hope of competing in (and hopefully winning) the Superbowl? Is there any other player that is completely indispensable?

Randy Moss, IMO, is more important than Brady.

 

[Synovia]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

Who would step in at LT if Matt Light went down? I'd hate to see Kazcur or Sea Bass up against a rusher like Freeney or Peppers.

Why? Kazcur did it for an entire year, and had absolutely no problem.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

Randy Moss, IMO, is more important than Brady.

How so, Syn?

 

[letekro]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

Mayo, unless you're comfortable with the thought of a 40 yr old, deroided, post-stroke Bruschi playing 80 snaps a game.

 

[Ring 6]

Re: Question: Besides Tom Brady . . .

Nah. Barring a plethora of injuries, this team is a contender as long as Brady is healthy.

You could argue we are a contender even without Brady.
Last year, but for a tiebreaker, we were a playoff team. I don't think its ludicrous to assume we have gotten 1 game better. An 11-5 or 12-4 team is absolutely a contender.
When you consider that, I think we can sustain losing anyone and still contend, but i dont want to find out if i am right.