It's true.
No one was complaining about the WR corps before AB. Now it's a major concern?
You can believe what you want to believe but NE has never been host to a "target monster" ... even when they had Moss.
Now there has have been individual games where a player has been the target monster. Edelman, James White, etc.
... but there system has always been "get it to the guy that's open". My opinion, they will never stray from that.
Defense will determine who the "target monster" is on that particular Sunday.
The team is not "clearly" sniffing around for an AB replacement. Subjective. AB fell in their lap. Cost them nothing in draft picks. They never NEEDED him.
The talk of getting a Diggs or Fitzgerald or whoever else .... All media hype imo ... don't feel bad, you're not the only one that is buying their BS.
a) Mid season WR's do not work out in this system. b) Patriots covet draft picks too much and c) their salary cap is already topped out.
They're running with what they got.
When NE cut AB they went from being SB favorites .... to being SB favorites. .... WR corps will not be their downfall.
I didn't say the WR group was an issue . . . I did find the comparison of Brown's role and Dorsett's role to be nowhere similar. Yes, I believe Brown was going to become the primary target for Brady. Brown and Edelman would have received the huge majority of catches and others would have split the rest.
I also disagree with your assessment of the "get it to the open guy" concept. That was pre-2007 when no one really caught a ton of passes and targets were spread out across the receiving corps. Since then, Brady has concentrated on a lot fewer guys. In the past few years, he has locked in on 2-3 guys and the rest of the receivers were pretty much there to round out the field. It recent times, Brady has looked to Gronk and Edelman. When one of those guys was hurt, it turned into Gronk and Cooks. Or Edelman and Amendola. NE has not had a 3rd WR put up any decent numbers, well, pretty much since Tom got there. The last few years have seen more targets allocated to running backs. White is clearly in the circle of trust. But most years, guys like Dorsett, Patterson, Hogan, Mitchell, etc. have been there to round out the field and occasionally might have had a good game but then went back to being dormant for 4-6 games.
As far as NE coveting draft picks, they trade a first for Cooks. And they offered a first for Brown. That could have been 2 first round picks in 3 years spend on bringing in a high profile WR. And they just invested a first in a WR. That to me looks like they have been willing to upgrade their receivers by investing first round picks.
Brady has been very vocal about wanting / needing / desiring a new toy to throw to. He probably won't get one, but that doesn't mean they won't explore who is available and what the cost might be. If they could figure out a way to pull it off, they would try it. They brought Brown in and played him the first game he was eligible to play. So clearly they are not adverse to bringing a new guy in and running him right out there.
Again, I didn't say they NEEDED to add a WR, only that they are likely kicking the tires on who is available. I had NE going 14-2 this year on the strength of their defense and an easy schedule and that was BEFORE the AB situation. I don't see reasons to come off of that prediction unless they can't keep their OL healthy.
As far as the cap situation goes, they could probably figure out a way to facilitate a trade and somehow get the numbers to work. That would likely involve extending a bunch of players or converting a bunch of salaries to bonuses. But the cap room as has been reported doesn't reflect any number of moves the team could make. For example, AJ Green would cost them $750,000 a game. They would need $7.5 million in cap room to have him for 10 games. I don't think it would take all that much effort to rearrange some contracts to create the space. Will they? Probably not. Should they? They probably don't need to. Would Green fit in? Who knows . . . but if BB felt that was what the team needed and would be best for the team, he certainly would make a deal like that.
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