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What Makes The Patriots Offense So Difficult For Wide Receivers? – Extra Points – Boston.com
If you read one thing today, make it this great article from Erik Frenz breaking down the Patriots’ requirements for wide receivers. It’s the best thing I’ve read on the topic with a lot of insight from the receivers.
Will the New England Patriots continue 2013’s trend of going young on the offensive side of the ball? Given the players in their last year and the weak spots along their offensive line, it seems likely.
Specifically focusing on the interior line where the Patriots got much larger during the draft. Rookie offensive linemen like Stork, Halapio, and Fleming are on average much larger than bubble veteran players like Connolly and Wendell.
The problem is that they haven’t quite caught on as fast as the team had hoped. Stork was the highest OL taken in the draft, and it was a common reoccurrence to see him take a lap for a missed snap or botched play.
We’ll see this unit more when the pads come on in late July, and that might be where the rookies set themselves apart from the veterans due to their sheer size. Connolly and Wendell could very well be in jeopardy of losing their jobs when the roster needs to be cut down to 53.
Although they weren’t flashy picks that excite the fan base, drafting young, big offensive linemen is a great weapon to give Brady, as he should be able to stay on his feet a bit longer and let his receivers create more separation.
When it comes to running backs, look for the veterans to hold their spots pretty well. Ridley and Vereen should both be near locks to make the roster. They both are playing in a contract year and both are integral parts of the offense. Brandon Bolden could potentially be in trouble here, especially if rookie running backs James White and Roy Finch can produce during training camp.
White seems more likely to earn a spot due to his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and it’s been rumored the Patriots could go to a personnel package featuring both Vereen and White who are both solid pass catchers out of the backfield.
Similar to revolutionizing the two TE system, Belichick finds a way to think ahead of the curve and the two pass catching RB system might be his next big leap in NFL offensive personnel packages. Especially in the screen game, this system could become opposing defensive coordinators worst nightmares.
James Develin who is listed as a RB on the team’s site has actually been taking snaps with the TE group during minicamp. If he can show reliable hands, his spot should be safe regardless of what position it says on the roster. The battle between Bolden and Finch could come down to special team value, where Finch could have the upper hand. The Patriots could sport a RB depth chart looking something like Ridley, Vereen, White, Develin, and Finch at the beginning of the season.
The Patriots wide receiver core remains one of its biggest question marks. Last year it was very apparent that the rookie wide receivers were not on the same page with their quarterback. Whether it was bad drops, poorly run routes, or even not knowing where to line up before the snap, the Patriots looked lost on offense from time to time.
Edelman played a full 16 game season for the first time in his career, while Danny Amendola lived up to his injury prone expectations and never really looked 100% healthy after the Buffalo opener.
This group will rely on second year jumps from their young trio of Aaron Dobson, Josh Boyce, and Kenbrell Thompkins. Boyce looked solid in camp until some minor injury woes, and Thompkins once again looks like a summer hero but then again we’ve seen this before where he shines in the summer and disappears in the early winter. Dobson is still recovering from a foot injury, and we just hope to see something out of him in training camp but that is looking less and less likely.
I actually throw Amendola into the second year jump category, as a full season with the playbook should give him a better chance to form chemistry with Brady. This unit looks like it will heavily rely on a WR package featuring Amendola in the slot, Edelman as the Z receiver, and potentially a revolving door of Dobson, Thompkins, and Brandon LaFell as the X receiver. Barring health, this group should be better than last year, but it will be far from an elite unit in the NFL.
But are they good enough to compete for a Super Bowl? With a healthy Rob Gronkowski, absolutely.
Guest post from Cody Lachance/@HailtotheHoodie
A closer look at how Tom Brady reacts to being hit | masslive.com
What this shows is that Brady gets better over his first two hits and then slowly declines through his sixth hit, though his accuracy percentage remains higher than it is with a clean jersey throughout this span. Brady doesn’t begin to come apart until taking his seventh hit.
Brady shows a pretty remarkable ability to maintain his performance even when he’s getting drilled. An interesting stat to run this against would be how quickly he gets the ball out. Do more hits cause a delay in decision making?
While I never thought the Pats would select a quarterback as high as they did this year, I did think that the time to start throwing any and all quarterbacks they could get their hands on at the wall now.
My biggest question was what kind of quarterback might they target? Would it be one of the more mobile kind in the Cam Newton/Colin Kaepernick mold? Or would it be a more traditional pocket passer?
Belichick is known to stay well ahead of the curve on all aspects of football, so I assumed any quarterback acquired would tell us a lot about the direction that BB thought offensive football was going.
With Mallett on the roster, it seemed to point the Belichick still favoring pocket passers, especially one with a big arm. But with the selection of Garropolo, especially in the second round tells us something a little different I believe.
Garoppolo’s strengths? Quick reads and a quick release. Essentially what Brady does best. For all the criticism that the “dink-and-dunk” has gotten over the years, leaving fans crying for a “deeeeep threat” it would seem that Belichick thinks that’s a style of offense that can be effective going forward.
This is also reflective in the Pats’ penchant for traditional slot receivers who are extremely quick and can get open right away off the line.
They all go together with a quarterback like Garoppolo.
Will Garoppolo be Brady’s heir apparent? We’ll see in a couple seasons, but for now it appears Belichick and the Patriots will try to maintain the kind of offense that has worked with Brady.
In other words, receivers coming out of these systems are forced to learn a new way to speak about and learn the game. Instead of simply being told to run a slant or a go route, which makes learning a playbook much easier, they have to understand the concepts of each play and their assignment within in.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/in-other-words-receivers-coming-out-of-these/
Speak My Language | Chris Brown – Grantland.com
Great flashback read on the Patriots’ offense since I’ve been getting a lot of schematic questions lately.
The ever-changing New England Patriots’ offense – NFL.com
Great read from NFL.com, looking at each phase of the Patriots’ offensive evolution over the last 13 years. Can’t get enough of this kind of schematic history.
Doug Flutie ‘88 Flashback He so little!