Welker Out: For the Best?

[PosImpos]

You know, I've been thinking about this, and it occurred to me that maybe Wes Welker being out is for the best.  Welker leads our team in receiving yardage and catches (and it's not even close).  Yet he only has 3 touchdowns on the season; Welker is much more a middle-of-the-field, short-yardage receiver than a red zone threat.  Throughout this season, Brady has hardly passed to anybody besides Moss and Welker; our tight ends especially hardly got the ball all year long.  This may in part explain our red zone troubles - if Moss couldn't get open for a TD pass (and he was usually double teamed), we had to run it in.

On one hand, our dreadfully predictable passing attack might be a result of lack of real receiving talents on the team.  Joey Gallaway, who we chose to go after in the off-season instead of keeping Jabar Gaffney (awful decision in retrospect), was a total no-show early in the season and then got waived.  Julian Edelman has looked good, but he's a rookie with very little experience at the receiver position.  Sam Aiken has been fairly inconsistent.  Ben Watson is largely unproven.

On the other hand, though, I can't help feeling that Tom Brady has played it safe coming back from his injury, constantly going to the one guy on the team he knows he can rely on.  Early in the season he got frustrated when he went to other guys (Gallaway) and eventually he gave up and went with what worked.  Against bad teams, it was acceptable to abuse Welker and, at times, Moss.  Against good teams, however, it really exposed us, as it's pretty easy to defend a passing attack that revolves around 1 or 2 receivers.

Welker's injury will force Tom Brady to look to other options; in the past, he's shown an ability to spread the ball around on offense, even with unproven receivers.  Moreover, if Brees and Peyton Manning can make effective use of unproven talents, I have confidence that Brady can do the same.  He just needed a push to do so; he needed to be forced to stop relying so heavily on the one guy who just happened to come through time and time again. 

If Tom Brady can step up to the challenge of spreading the ball around to different receivers, our offensive attack may just be less predictable and more difficult to cover than it was before.  Our offense might actually be more potent without Welker than it was with it, not because Welker hurt our team, but because he allowed Tom Brady to be too predictable.  Tom Brady has shown in the past that he can succeed under immense amounts of pressure without a great deal of offensive talent around him.  I believe he is capable of doing it again this year.

[Bahku]

I know what you're saying here, PosImpos, (TP) and I agree for the most part, (as usual ). The problem I have is that the Patriots' offense of late has been built around plays for Welker, running and passing, and without him, the team is faced with the prospect of making huge adjustments, learning new plays, and pretty much learning a whole new offensive scheme.

That's why we saw so much of Edelman on Sunday, not because they had a slew of plays designed for him, but because they wanted to make as few changes as possible, and so just plugged Edelman into Welker's spot. I can pretty much guarantee, (in my own mind, anyway), that Bill is not going to change a whole heckuva-lot at this point, but is going to run more plays for Moss, obviously.

But he'll also still stay with plays designed for Wes, and just put the ball in Edelman's hands, (pun intended, thanks to Redz ), to be successful in Welker's stead. There really is just not enough time to do anything else effectively, without throwing a huge monkey-wrench into what they're all accustomed to offensively.

Edelman is a very talented receiver, and is far under-rated in my opinion, but he may be getting his "big break" a little sooner than he was prepared for. If he's worth his weight, he'll step up and do his best wearing Welker's cleats, so to speak. The problem is, despite Wes' small stature, those are some big shoes to fill. (Very nice post, Pos)

[PosImpos]

You make a good point - I don't think Bill will try to change things up much at this point.  I agree with that sentiment.

I guess I'm just hoping for Brady to be a little bit more like Peyton and take charge of things - improvise and lead the offense on his own, not necessarily following a set strategy that Bill came up with.  Bill is a great coach and Brady has had a lot of success following his lead, but at times I think a great quarterback needs to run the show on his own and make his own decisions about when and where to pass.

[Bahku]

You make a good point - I don't think Bill will try to change things up much at this point.  I agree with that sentiment.

I guess I'm just hoping for Brady to be a little bit more like Peyton and take charge of things - improvise and lead the offense on his own, not necessarily following a set strategy that Bill came up with.  Bill is a great coach and Brady has had a lot of success following his lead, but at times I think a great quarterback needs to run the show on his own and make his own decisions about when and where to pass.

Yeah ... I agree, Bud ... I would love to see Brady in the "shotgun" calling his own plays, like he does in the two-minute drill. For whatever reasons, I think he's the type of person who functions better under pressure, when the decisions are his. I think that would also show Bill's confidence in him, which Tom has certainly earned by now.

I've rarely seen anyone like Brady when it comes to performing under pressure and keeping his eyes down the field, even when he's about to be slammed. I am also of the belief that he should run more ... no, he's not fast, but he's shown to be much more mobile than Bill gives him credit for, (via plays called), and I think he'd do great with the "play-action", which would give him more at-the-moment options.

There have been times when he's been wide-open to get a first down by just scrambling, but you can tell he's been told by Bill NOT to, and hesitates. I'm in complete agreement with you in that respect ... Bill needs to let go some of his control and give the reigns to Tom more ... he's certainly capable of it, and I feel he actually thrives in that environment.

Here's hoping that Bill sees the value in it as well ... at this point, there's not much to lose ... we're going to be the underdog in whatever situation we're in, simply because Welker was such a huge part of this teams' success.