Good statement, pretty much agree that Brady, with the exception of '07, has been making chicken salad out of chicken crap for many seasons.. other seasons have fielded more talent, but this year up to game 3 the talent has been way below average and it shows on the field.
If Gordon "gets it" then between him, Gronk, Edelman and White can create havoc on other teams Defense.. also think the current Offensive philosophy is tired and predictable, a function of lack of talent or lack of imagination??
Read over and over about how the Pats need to trade for this guy or that guy, the Pats do not have a lot to offer.... draft picks?? When you offer the 30th or 60th draft pick for a high value guy, there is not a lot of response...
That "chicken crap" still needs to run the correct routes, get open and catch the ball, no matter how great Brady is at throwing it. And, as a group, they've been doing that well enough to enable Brady to put up elite stats consistently for years. And that's in spite of the fact that there usually hasn't been more than one standout pass catcher at a time (much less an "elite" guy) who was healthy and available all the time.
The problem so far this year hasn't really been a lack of "quality"; it's been a
lack of quantity. Hogan, Dorsett and Patterson really aren't any "worse" than the role players of years past (and much better than what was available to Brady in 2013). Brady is still putting up a 64% completion percentage and is still on pace for 32 passing TDs.
While it's obvious that Hogan and Burkhead have both been well-covered (50% catch rate for both), Dorsett has an 86% catch rate through three games. Gronk is at 76%. Patterson is at 71% and White is at 70%. But that's ALL Brady has had to work with, really. Typically, the roster includes enough viable passing targets that McD and Brady can't feed them all.
Not the case so far this season. There simply haven't been enough viable targets available - including RBs and TEs - to get the job done. Develin already has 6 tgts through 3 games (and a 67% catch rate). His average for
a full season over the past five years has been five tgts.
If Hollister (and his 100% catch rate) can get back to, and stay on the field ... and if Sony can improve on his 40% catch rate ... it almost doesn't matter what specific WR the Pats add to the group. As long as he can reliably get open and make catches he makes things easier for everyone else - particularly McD and Brady. He doesn't need to be a Dez or a Demaryious or a Cooks.
The Pats didn't trade for Gordon because of his 2013 season. They traded for him because he's shown he can be a viable target in an Erhardt-Perkins offensive system - understand the routes, get open and catch. He doesn't need to put up anything remotely close to his 2013 numbers to help "fix" the effectiveness of the passing attack. Just being out there on the field will be enough. At the very least, Brady won't need to rely on Develin dump-offs.
Which circles back to Britt, Matthews and Mitchell. In early June, Britt had apparently "gotten it" enough to have been offered a contract extension. Matthews, according to media reports from Camp, appeared to be "getting it" before he was injured. We know from his past performance that Mitchell "got it". Any of them might have been "just as good as" Gordon in terms of increasing the quantity of viable passing tgts for Brady.
Add in Hollister, who hasn't been healthy, and Sony, who's just now getting his pre-season game reps, add the loss of Hill in week-1.
If just Mitchell, Hollister and Hill had all been available to play these past two games, the Pats offense likely would've been putting up 30 per game and be 3-0.
