Just about all of the stats, basically.
Code:
Year Cmp% TD% Int% Y/A AY/A Y/C Y/G Rate NY/A ANY/A Sk%
2018 65.2 4.7 1.7 7.5 7.7 11.6 275.5 96.3 6.99 7.14 3.8
Career 64.0 5.5 1.8 7.5 7.8 11.7 262.1 97.5 6.85 7.12 4.8
His TD% is down a little this year, but the team also has 13 rushing touchdowns already, which puts them on pace for a couple more than they had last year.
Brady/McD/the offense was missing much more potential weapons than just Edelman at the beginning of the season.
For the first three games, the Pats had only Hogan, Dorsett and Patterson at WR (Yikes!). I think McCarron may have been active for one of those games, but that's extreme nit-picking. They had Hollister for wk-2 only.
At RB, the offense had Hill for one quarter in wk-1, plus White and Burkhead. Michel got his first NFL snaps in wk-2. In wk-3, they had White, Michel and about 7 snaps from Burkhead.
Gordon got his first snaps with the Pats in wk-4, but Burkhead was gone to IR, and Gronk's ankle was already injured by that point. Good thing they were playing the Fins.
So, week-5, when Edelman returned, was really the first game of the season on which every offensive skill position was (more or less) fully-staffed. Even then, Gordon was in only his second game of figuring things out. OTOH, Miami was the first of three consecutive true tomato can pass defenses the Pats would face, so that was lucky.
But, after those three, the Pats played without Gronk for three games and without Michel for two. The only game of those four that the offense played against a non-top-10 defense, Green Bay, was the only game they were missing both Gronk and Michel. Another lucky break.
BTW - The Pats offense has played six of 11 games against pass defenses that are (more or less) among the top-10 in the league, and four run defenses that are in the top-10. It's not as if they've been struggling against creampuffs while fully-staffed.
