I was actually pretty impressed from what I saw of Henne last year. Interested to see this year if he is worth a .
imho last year Brady might have had his worst season ever. His numbers look good because he curbstomped the ans and Jaguars, take those two games away and he was almost Chad Henne bad.
Brady getting back on track = Super Bowl
I think 2008 was worse.
Brady out for the season > Brady in 2009, tbh.
Carson Palmer bounced back, Brady will too.
Tbh mono this is a more cynical view but I think they have more concerns than Tom Brady returning to form if they're gonna get back to the superbowl. imho they're gonna need better play from the O-line and weapons for Brady other than Welker and Moss.
Their defense is far from the abortion the media portrays it to be, it played really well last year given the lack of experience, the big concerns on that side of the ball is depth at corner beyond Bodden and Butler, which hopefully comes with McCourtney and a bounce back year from Wheatley, along with better play from the linebackers which seems reasonable if McKenzie is healthy and if es can gouge some s eyes out.
The AFC seems pretty wide open right now. The Chargers are prolly gonna lose Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeil, the Jets still start Mark Sanchez, lol Colts, and Pittsburgh sucks. The team that might be really scary this year is Baltimore.
AFC's elite this year
1st Tier
Colts
Ravens
2nd Tier
Patriots
ans
Bengals
Chargers
Possibly elite, possibly suckass
Steelers
Jets
Dolphins
Agreed w/ the Ravens part, they're the team I'd pick right now, especially if Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs can come back healthy. On D they added tons of depth at D-line and linebacker, and on offense they made major improvements at receiver and tight end. Boldin's health won't be a huge issue since most of his injuries had a lot to do with Warner or Leinart leaving him suseptible to a bad hit.
I don't think they do, really. Brady never had big weapons on offense in his career, other than 1 good year of Corey Dillon, and then 2007. Assuming Brady is back to full strength this season, he just needs guys that are dependable rather than playmakers. I think he's got that in his receivers (I think Edelman could do a pretty good Deion Branch impersonation), the question is his RB's. Before Corey Dillon, Antowain Smith was always unspectacular but dependable. Maroney is far from dependable and Fred Taylor/Sammy Morris are always hurt. If just one of them can stay healthy, they'll be fine.
Brady's biggest asset was never his passing ability, it was his fearlessness in the pocket and his ability to sidestep pressure. All last season that asset was completely missing. Unless he had picture perfect blocking, he was uneasy in the pocket, never setting his feet, and throwing off his back foot a whole lot.
If he can get that comfort in the pocket with pressure around him, the Patriots are SB contenders again. If his injury has forever scarred his psyche, then it's time for the Zac Robinson dynasty.
Tbh having David Patten also helps in the dependable department since that's a receiver Brady knows and trusts. When I said weapons I basically meant receivers he was comfortable throwing to, not necessarily playmakers. Last year, it sure as seemed like he was uncomfortable throwing to anyone other than Moss and Welker, and he seemed lost when those two were defended well. It very well coud be that his injury played some role in him not being comfortable working through his progressions in the pocket and panicking if Moss and Welker weren't open. If that's the case then it's not a big deal.
I think the Pats defense has too many question marks to be contenders, even if Brady plays at mvp levels.
+1
I mean it's possible that the defense may step up and consistently play well, but over the past few years, every year pats fans would talk about how 3 or 4 different defensive players that were about to break out and have a monster year or something and that the defense would be beastly, but it never happened. I don't see any reason to believe this year will be different. But we will see.
Patriots' defense was top 5 in points allowed per game last year. If the Saints can win a superbowl with the defense they had, then New England can win with their D. The big problem with them is consistency since they had a few games and halves where they laid an egg, but there is all kinds of talent on that side of the ball the only question is how cohesive the talent is.
PPG = overrated stat IMO
especially in a division with teams that were not very good offensively. Miami was the best, and they are middle of the pack in terms of both PPG and YPG. jets and bills both sucked far worse.
also, Saints offense > Patriots offense
I never said Saints offense < Patriots offense, just sayin' that it's possible to win a superbowl with New England's defense. One reason why I think New England's line is gonna need to play better is because New England is gonna need a powerhouse offense to be a superbowl contender this year.
Ravens rattled off 33 against the Pats in the wild card game.
I know they had the big run from Ray Rice and a short field thanks to Brady's crappy 1st quarter, but that doesn't really excuse them from keeping the Ravens out of the end zone, imo.
lol 1 game sample size
And yeah, the defense played like in that game. Like I said, consistency. They have games where they look great and games where they lay an egg. Also as you mentioned the offense got them in a lot of trouble over the course of the year (sup 4th and 2).
What I'm trying to say is, I don't think New England can beat the Colts unless they get better defense.
Colts and Ravens both stand in their way. They need better defense for the Colts, and they need more versatility on offense to beat the Ravens.
Dude, they more or less had the game against Indy wrapped up last year and that game was in Indy. If Bell Belichick doesn't royally up managing timeouts/challenges/punting on 4th and 2 New England wins the game. They for all intensive purposes outplayed Indy. The defense fell apart against Indy because of how much it was on the field in the 2nd half, it was fatigued as .
And yeah, they need a better offense to beat Baltimore, which is why I have a lot more concern on the offensive side of the ball than the defensive side. I'm not content with how the defense played last year, but in my book the offense is a bigger question mark this year than the defense is.
The biggest problem last season was that Belichick gambled and lost that 1) the team could survive without Seymour and that 2) Derrick Burgess could fill that pass rushing hole. Not having Vrabel/Bruschi/Seymour in the locker room was also huge.
In the end it was worth it because Belichick probably knew before the season that Brady and the defense were another year or two away from being real contenders, so trading Seymour for a future 1st rounder was a better long term move.
The defense has so much youth that it still might be another year from really coming together. But there's so much damn talent that they're going to be beastly when it all comes together. Mayo and Meriweather appear to have matured alot in terms of both of them saying they want to be the new leaders of the defense, I think Brandon es could be that type of locker room guy too, as long as he's not trying to gouge anyone's eyes out.
tbh DoK I'm kinda surprised you think Brady doesn't have passing weapons outside of Moss/Welker.....have you forgotten we now have Rob "I'm a bad mother er" Gronkowski?
also, Hernandez is going to beast too. Gronk/Hernandez will be the killer TE duo that Dallas would have if Martellus Bennett ever puts as much effort into football as he does his YouTube videos.
tbh DoK I'm kinda surprised you think Brady doesn't have passing weapons outside of Moss/Welker.....have you forgotten we now have Rob "I'm a bad mother er" Gronkowski?
also, Hernandez is going to beast too. Gronk/Hernandez will be the killer TE duo that Dallas would have if Martellus Bennett ever puts as much effort into football as he does his YouTube videos.
Depending on which of the 2008 recruiting class receivers enter early this year, that Raiders 1st rounder can potentially be used on Moss's replacement, preferably AJ Green or Jonathan Baldwin.
wtf? It was a playoff game. If you can't contend in the playoffs then you aren't a contender. Pretty simple.
The offense is less of a question than the defense, imo.
I could easily see Brady throwing for 4000+ and 35+ and still coming up with a 10-6 record.
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