With Sanders Off the Table, Patriots Have to Go Back to the Drawing Board at Receiver

[PatsFans.com Article]

With Sanders Off the Table, Patriots Have to Go Back to the Drawing Board at Receiver
By: Ian Logue

The Patriots thought they had the Pittsburgh Steelers right where they wanted them, but in the end it wasn't enough to steal receiver Emmanuel Sanders away and bring him to New England....

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[JoeSixPat]

Re: With Sanders Off the Table, Patriots Have to Go Back to the Drawing Board at Rece

Excellent read!

Your sifting through the stats certainly should give pause to anyone who questions what role the Patriots wanted Lloyd to play, and the question of how adequate he was at it:

They definitely took their shots, throwing 48 times down the field to the left (4th most in the NFL), 33 down the middle (6th most) and 38 down the field to the right (19th in the league).

Looking at the numbers in our stats database, the Patriots clearly tried to make Brandon Lloyd their deep outside threat and it just didn’t work out. He was targeted a staggering 22 times with just 3 catches on deep attempts to the left (13% completion rate), along with 14 targets with just 5 catches on deep attempts to the right (35%).

Obviously the Patriots weren't happy with his production and as a result they’ve opted to move in another direction.

All that being said I'm not sure Sanders was a slam dunk answer in the deep role either.

I'm not ruling out a trade - or perhaps they get lucky in other team cuts - there's even still a few guys out there as FAs I wouldn't mind taking a chance on - but ultimately I expect them to take a deep speed WR in the draft.

While I know Belichick's draft experience at WR is less than impressive. However, in a draft supposedly deep at WR I wouldn't be surprised to see them use their 1st round pick on a deep threat WR. I can easily see them using their 3rd rounder.

Overall the draft is a crapshoot and that's especially true at WR - but I think there's enough quality prospects that the Patriots will take one or more in the draft as there's quite a few WRs out there both speedy and versatile.

Hey - even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. One of these times Belichick is going to draft a WR and hit paydirt! I think this is the year.

 

[supafly]

Re: With Sanders Off the Table, Patriots Have to Go Back to the Drawing Board at Rece

I still wouldn't mind seeing Llyod return on a cheaper deal to assure us of some depth/knowledge as a WR3 or WR4, but it's obvious that he is very limited in being able to do what they asked of him.

3 catches in 22 attempts down the left sideline? Wow...

5 catches in 14 attempts down the right isn't nearly as bad, and more of what I'd expect, but it still totals:

8 catches in 36 attempts down the sidelines.

That's not going to cut it, nor is his tendency to go down after catching the ball or his lack of skills in beating man coverage.