Three of the five WRs currently listed on our roster are 30+ years of age and Slater is closer to 30 than he is to 25. All of our receivers are smallish and not particularly fast, though quickness and knowlege of the playbook can make up for the lack of speed sometimes. No receiver on this roster poses a legitimate downfield threat to a defense. Most would probably agree that we need someone who can stretch the field, though Brady won 3 superbowls without a real deep threat (Branch, Patten and Givens were quick, bordering on fast, but none would be considered a deep threat, then or now).
But here's the problem: We've been down this road before with both drafted and free agent WR acquisitions, and aside from Moss, none have panned out. Moss was just one of those freaks of the game that still had a little left in the tank when he came in. Now, all we ever hear is how complicated the offense is and how difficult it is for receivers to fully grasp it.
Which brings me to my point: If the offense is so complicated that young or free agent WRs can't grasp it, then MAYBE IT'S TIME TO SIMPLIFY IT... With an aging and non-threatening receiving corps that's getting older and slower by the season and no talent pool that has experience in "our complicated system" and with Brady at a point in his life where he's no longer going to stay late after practice to work with young receivers like he did early in his career with Branch, Patten and Givens, something needs to change. It's great to have dominating TEs, but the better d's understand we pose no threat to them deep and bring their safeties up into the box and have the db's jam our undersized WRs, disrupting the overall timing of the entire offense.
I'm seeing more and more coverage sacks, where Brady is just standing there then sliding around in the pocket looking for an open receier and no one can get open and he has to eat it because he's too slow to make it happen with his running. This is a young mans game and it seems to me that the team is really wasting the last couple years of #12's career by continuing to run an offense that doesn't allow young receivers to develop.
Many (myself included) fault BB for being poor at drafting WR's. I'm starting to believe that it's more a fault of the system than the talent evaluation, but regardless, something needs to change pretty soon, especially if Brady is planning on playing into his 40's as he's mentioned... Nothing would be more embarassing than seeing 40+ year old Brady with his 9.6 forty time looking for Branch to jump out of his walker to make a 4 yard reception, since Lloyd somehow tripped over the imaginary line of scrimmage that the network puts on the tv screen and was still getting up off the ground and Welker was standing on the sideline taking a concussion test after Brady led him too much 3 plays before and a safety lit him up.
If it's THAT complicated, how about simplifying it a bit so we can get some younger talent at the skill positions?
