I remember a ton of people pointing out that the Pats were overly reliant on Welker from 2009-2012. You can make a pretty strong case that it was the #1 culprit for why the offense fizzled out in the playoffs the way that it consistently did. Welker also consistently put up stronger numbers than what Edelman had this year.
Well the interesting thing about the Welker phenomenon is that he was putting up those numbers and getting that kind of attention from Brady when we had basically the best TE duo in the entire NFL. And yet his usage percentage in our offense was extremely high. Inordinately high.
The interesting thing about Julian Edelman is that he produced a 1,000 yard season with 6 TDs when he was basically the only receiver worth throwing to, and everybody else on the other team KNEW IT. Usually in those types of circumstances the other team game plans to shut down your best, or in this case arguably, your only offensive weapon.
Yet JE kept motoring along and producing, in fact his production got better in the SECOND HALF than the first. And that is surprising because teams would have had plenty of game film on him by then to conclude that he would be Brady's go to guy, because well, he was our ONLY guy outside of a trio of unproven rookies.
JE's punt return prowess is just gravy on top of that. Welker used to be a very good punt returner for us, but it got to the point where you'd expect more often than not that he'd automatically call a fair catch instead of trying to run it back. JE didn't have that drawback as a PR. He was a dynamic field position weapon for us.
Losing JE essentially means we would be losing two positions at once, a 1,000 yard receiver plus a top 3 Punt Returner in the league. Yes, he was #1, but even with a slight regression of numbers, at his age, I'd expect him to still be at least a top 3 guy next year.
And let's just hypothesize that JE leaves, who fills that vacuum? I'm not a firm believer in DA at this point. And as we have seen, some very talented receivers have come into our system and just don't 'get it' regardless of physical gifts. That's the risk that we take by signing a replacement. Can they immediately come in, 'get' our complicated read offense system, gain Brady's trust, and produce to at least JE 2013 levels?