A few nights ago I spent the evening as most adults do, going down a rabbit hole of YouTube highlight tapes of all the guys Tom Brady will be throwing to this upcoming season. One thing led to another, and whoops! There I am for the millionth time down the Randy Moss highlight rabbit hole. I could watch Randy Moss play football all day. High school highlights, college highlights, film from him playing for any of his five NFL teams, interviews, anything. Moss this Moss that, the guy is a legend.
Watching Tom Brady throw 23 touchdown passes to Randy Moss was incredible, although the season's end result was much less than ideal and even less expected. There's no way Brady could ever replicate that season, throwing for 56 total touchdowns and 5,543 total yards in 19 games. The greatest quarterback of all time was throwing to the greatest wide receiver of all time.
But taking a look at Tom Brady's targets for the 2017 season, it's hard not to think that life will be somehow easier for the 40 year old QB than it was in 2007. And according to Twitter, the large majority of people agree with me:
Brady to moss was one of the greatest duos to ever grace the football field, but the receiving corps a decade ago had nowhere near the depth that this 2017 squad boasts. The greatest quarterback of all time will be throwing to the greatest tight end of all time, Brandin Cooks, Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, Malcolm Mitchell, Chris Hogan and Dwayne Allen. Not to mention a loaded backfield featuring James White and Dion Lewis, amongst many others, who we all know can be utilized successfully for Brady's quick screen passes and wheel routes. NFL opponents, find the limit of this equation.
The limit does not exist with that plethora of reliable targets. I truly have no idea how this offense can be stopped. I mean just think about it, the Pats just won a Super Bowl without Gronk. Sure, they lost Marty Bennett to Green Bay but I'll take Gronk and Dwayne Allen over Marty any day of the week. No offense to Marty there.
The duo of Amendola and Edelman has proven to be very reliable for TB12 over these last few seasons. To be honest, I was very anti-Amendola when he first came to New England, but his postseason heroics have changed that view forever. And Edelman, well not much needs to be said for him. Jules and Brady have the same chemistry a father and son have tossing the pigskin in the backyard on a Sunday morning.
Malcolm Mitchell really proved himself as a worthy draft pick in his rookie season, and I'm excited to see what the future holds for him. He's a solid deep threat for the Pats offense that loves throwing quick, short passes. The only problem is, Mitchell might not be ready to fully take on the role as the main deep threat.
Oh wait, never mind. That won't be a problem at all since somehow, someway, the Patriots acquired Brandin Cooks, who should be catching plenty of bombs from Brady.
Cooks can absolutely fly down the field; he ran a 4.33 second 40-yard dash at the 2014 NFL combine. In each of his last two seasons, Cooks tallied over 1,100 yards. In 2015 he caught nine touchdown passes, and in 2016 he had eight.
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Brandin Cooks will be putting up Randy Moss numbers. That'd be preposterous. What I'm saying is that Brady will likely put up similar numbers in 2017 as he did when Moss was on the Patriots. There are simply too many reliable targets for the defense to cover. He'll have the ability to spread the ball like we've never seen before.
Brady's numbers in '07 really speak to how damn good Randy Moss was. Everyone knew the ball was going to him, but he was just one of those elite receivers that nobody could do anything to stop. Aside from Randy, the 2007 Patriots receiving corps wasn't quite what we're about to witness this fall. Wes Welker was another great target, as he racked up 1,175 yards and eight touchdowns, very similar to Cook's performance in the last two years. After Moss and Welker, the list of receivers/tight ends wasn't particularly star-studded; Donte' Stallworth, Jabar Gaffney, and Ben Watson had the majority of non-Moss/Welker receptions.
At the end of the day, I never thought I'd be able to witness Brady play the way he did in that almost undefeated season a decade ago. But with the arsenal that TB12 is dealing with this year, I think that'll be proven wrong.
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