Check out the depth we have at receiver. Someone has to go but I'm not sure who. I have a feeling it will be Patten but I hope its Stokes. David Givens Deion Branch Troy Brown Bethal Johnson David patten J.J. Stokes P.K. Sam (rookie) Is their another receiving core that has as much quality talant down the line? Not to mention our TE depth now with the Addition on Watson. To put all this depth with a top 5 defense though I feel we were #1 last year not the Cowboys because we gave up the fewest points and I'm sorry but forget yards and all that the goal is to keep points off the board.
ya he actually wasn't bad when he got a chance in the two games he played before we cut him. He even caught a nice touchdown in the corner against the texans I think but the ref said he stepped out and when the replay ran he was clearly in but we didn't challenge and scored anyway. He wasn't on the field much and only had two catches but I think only 3 balls were thrown his way and one was a 31 yard catch. He is definitely a body we can use inside the 20. But To have David Patten, a 70 catch guy with us as your 5th receiver is pretty ridiculous and with the strides both givens and branch took from about week five on were huge. If givens had started all season he may have challenged 1,000 yards. Besides Troy, Givens had the best hands on the team. Oh ya he was a 7th round pick too!
I think depth like that is important so long as the scheme is successful. Without a scheme that works, this depth would be worthless. These guys may not be as valuable if they were on another team. But....it continues to work for the Patriots. As for defense, when Quincy or Hutch fumbles on their own 20, it does help the Cowboys defensive yardage stats, eh Pats? Of course, you can't blame the defense for points scored in that case either I guess. If our offense was a little more potent, our defensive stats may look a little better too.
It works because Brady has been one of the best QB's in the league with a spread offense at his disposal. He just reads defenses so well and makes decisions so fast its almost without thinking it seems. Thats allows him to spread the wealth and make everyone feel they contributed. I guess brady better start turning some balls over so our defense gets some credit. I'm not trying to say that our defense way better than everyone in the NFL and I do think Dallas has a NASTY def I just don't like the ranking system thought it would be hard to find a perfect ranking system. I just think we were 1-2 in the league but the NFL system has us at 7. I just think Points allowed should have more weight because ultimately thats the purpose. Kepp the other team off the board no matter how you do it.
i think carolina has pretty good depth.... smith muhammed proehl hayes colbert hankton we typically use TE for blocking tho...that works good with our running game, which, as good as it should be, could give us an extra "theoretical" position at WR, so to speak (D having to bring up another man to stop it)
Smith and Muhammed are solid and proehl only knows big catches but hayes can't learn a playbook as evident from his short stay with us and I can't honestly say I have ever even heard hankton's name called in a game. Colbert is a rookie and has promise, but like you said you have the TE in for the running game alot and I know you don't run alot of empty backfields the way we do so you don't need to be as deep.
