Despite another relatively ugly effort, the Patriots ground out a victory Sunday against the Chargers to extend their winning streak to four games. Leading the charge to the Pats 6-2 record is the offense, which leads the NFL in total yards, and while they continued to struggle in the red zone on Sunday, they still rank 7th in the NFL in points per game.
While this success is certainly not surprising, there was some concern about the passing game after the loss of Brady’s safety blanket, Julian Edelman. However, thanks to the best variety of distribution we have seen in the Brady era, the passing game has been able to combat the loss of Edelman, and even prosper through it, reaching territory that few Brady-led offenses have ever reached.
Thus far in 2017, the Patriots have five players with have 31 catches or more, compared to the first eight weeks of the 2016 season, in which they had just three. In 2017, James White leads the way with 43 catches, followed by Rob Gronkowski (34), Chris Hogan (33), Brandin Cooks (33), and Danny Amendola (31). These five are all on pace to reach at least 670 yards this season, with Cooks leading the way at 1,126 yards and Gronkowski in second with 1,018 yards.
If those five receivers all reach their projected totals, it would be the first time in the 17 seasons Brady has run the offense that five receivers gained at least 670 yards in a single season, and the fifth time that two receivers registered 1,000 yards or more in the same season. Obviously, one or more of these pass-catchers are bound to miss a game or two throughout the course of the season, which would throw off their projected stats, but it speaks to the stellar performance of these offensive weapons thus far that they are even on pace for figures like that.
The next closest offense in terms of overall distribution is the 2011 iteration of the Patriots passing game, which featured four players with 670 yards or more and two players with at least 1,000 yards (Randy Moss and Wes Welker). In terms of yardage, the 2011 offense was the most prolific of Brady’s career, and also the lone season in which he threw for over 5,000 yards.
But in 2017, Brady is rights on the heels of his 2011 performance, as he is on pace to throw for 5,082 passing yards this season, which would be the second highest total of his career. The 2017 Patriots offense is also on pace for the fourth-highest yardage total of the Brady-Belichick era, which would put them just two yard behind the record-setting 2007 offense.
To eclipse his career high of 5,235 yards, Brady needs to up his passing yards per game average by 20 yards for the rest of the season, a tall task for sure, but something that is not entirely out of the question considering the level at which he is playing, especially considering the fact that the Patriots will face four defenses in their final eight games that rank in the bottom eight in passing yards allowed. Granted, the other four opponents all rank in the top seven in passing yards allowed, but Brady did throw for 307 yards against the sixth-ranked Carolina defense, just 10 yards below his per-game average so far, so it does not appear that the quality of opponent hinders Brady that much when it comes to his yardage total.
In the fight for the #1 overall seed in the AFC, the Patriots will likely need their offense to maintain its stellar production thus far, but with the variety of distribution being as good as it is and the gaudy numbers Brady has put up, it is hard to imagine a decrease in performance from the unit.