Let me preface this with a few things. I loved having Wes here. He is still one of the best in and out of his breaks and, despite his drops, he's still got some of the best hands around. Not to mention that he's tough as hell. A true gamer. A true Patriot. I was one of the first to talk about the Pats getting him from Miami back in 2006 before he became an RFA.
I rate Brady as, arguably, the greatest modern day QB. Since he took over back in 2001, he's had a confidence about him that gave you faith in the entire team. I don't expect Brady to be perfect. But I do expect a certain level of consistency from him.
OK..
I saw something in the AFCCG that I didn't like. And that was Brady trying to force the ball to Welker who was tightly covered while other guys (Vereen esp.) were open. This has been a growing concern since 2007. People mentioned that Brady relied too much on Moss and that he was trying to force the ball to Moss when Moss was covered. Back then, it didn't seem like Brady was forcing the ball to Welker because Welker was always open.
In all honesty, Brady has gotten away from what made him so successful in 2003 and 2004. In fact, it became cliche' to say "Who is Brady's favorite receiver? The open one." Brady would regularly have 6-8 different receivers with receptions. In the past few years, we'd be lucky if it was more than Welker, Hernandez, and Gronk.
I would have said that it was a function of the offense, but the AFCCG convinced me otherwise. Especially when Vereen was open on several different plays in a row out of the backfield and Brady threw to him twice with only one of the catchable. The other was thrown behind Vereen making it nearly impossible for him to catch.
Frankly, your post shows a real lack of understanding of the passing game.
The idea that Brady drops back and sees all 5 receivers simultaneously and chooses which one to throw to is way off the mark.
An NFL passing game is set up on progressions. The QB is given an order of who to throw to if open, and that order changes depending on the coverage. If the 5th option is wide open, but the first is open as well, you will be throwing to the first option. The job of the QB is to determine if the receiver is 'open enough' and that ability is probably the single most quality that makes Brady possibly the GOAT.
The numbers do not bear out your analysis either, as Brady has been more successful on passes to Welker than anyone who has ever played with him.
In other words, Brady does a tremendous job of deterining if Welker is 'open enough' and Welker does a tremendous job of getting open.
When your favorite receiver is 'the open one' you spread the ball around if none are good enough to get open a lot. If one gets open a lot, he gets a ton of throws. Brady never changed the philosophy, he was just given receivers who were 'the open one' a lot more often in Welker, Moss and Gronk.
The argument that could be made in regard to the topic you misanalayzed here is that the playcalling and scheme may have become too reliant on Welker, calling many plays where he was the primary read. Calling more plays that put him lower in the progression priority while putting players running deeper routes higher on the priority order would result in more throws down the field. If Welker is the #1 read on every pass play and gets open all the time, the scheme is saying overrely on Welker, not Brady.
Of course the rub is that reading deep to short makes the check down easier to cover because it is in a shorter area and develops and runs its course more quickly.
