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danny amendola

Tom Brady’s Most Clutch Third-Down Receivers

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Yesterday, Phil Perry’s excellent series of Great Patriots Debates continued by pitting Deion Branch against Danny Amendola. After putting some thought into it, I had to stick with Branch by a hair. It was still like choosing between my kids.

Essentially, Branch was THE guy in 2003 and 2004 and he delivered in the biggest spots just like Amendola did in a more reserve role. Yes, Amendola probably had more “holy shit” moments and he was everything getting to Super Bowl 52.

But we can’t forget Branch was every bit as clutch without any big names, except 2004’s Corey Dillon, around him. Amendola had Julian Edelman and/or Rob Gronkowski for most of his five seasons.

The debate got me wondering, who are Tom Brady‘s most clutch receivers? Is there a stat to find out? Let’s jump in.

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On Britt, Dez and the Remaining Patriots Receivers

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As you’ve heard by now the Pats released Kenny Britt on Wednesday, just as most of the attention was turning toward him as the x-factor in the receiver battle. I know I was focusing fully on him as recently as yesterday morning and now here we are, a third lost receiver this summer in addition to the departures of Danny Amendola and Brandin Cooks in the offseason.

Early in camp I thought the hot takes about the receiver situation was overblown and to some extent I still do, but it’s still hard to fathom losing five receivers off the roster in seven months, even if the writing was on the wall with Amendola and Cooks was more a luxury than someone to lean upon. So what are the Pats left with? Julian Edelman, who is somehow being very much underappreciated because he’s coming off an injury and will miss the first four games. He’s not dead. He’s still the all-time leading post-season receiver and one of Tom Brady‘s most trusted targets, but for some reason that’s mostly getting swept under the rug these days.

Then there’s Chris Hogan, who led the league in yards-per-catch two seasons ago and still topped his catch total in 2017 despite missing multiple games to injury. Between Edelman and Hogan there’s a very solid base to start from, so if you’re throwing yourself off the bridge now I’m not sure how you lived through 2006 or 2013.

Remember 2013? Wes Welker and Deion Branch left, Aaron Hernandez was released after being arrested and Brady’s weaponz went back to ground zero. The talking points that offseason? Edelman hadn’t done anything since his rookie year four years earlier. Danny Amendola was too fragile. After them it was undrafted Kenbrell Thompkins and second-round pick Aaron Dobson. Josh Boyce and Austin Collie made guest appearances and that was it.

The result? The Pats offense fell from 1st overall in 2012 to… 4th overall. They were third in points and 10th in yards, en route to a 12-4 record. Edelman broke 100 catches/1,000 yards.

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Will Who Return Punts for Pats?

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Since 2013 Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola have combined to return 190 punts for the Patriots. Last season, when Edelman went down, Amendola shouldered nearly the entire load with 27 punt returns. Bernard Reedy (who?) was second on the team with four. Now, with Amendola in Miami and Edelman looking at a four-game suspension, the Pats need a punt returner.

Patriots Punt Returns since 2013
Punt Punt Punt Punt Punt
Player Ret
▼		 PRYds TD Lng Y/R
Julian Edelman 96 1174 1 84 12.23
Danny Amendola 94 978 0 82 10.40
Cyrus Jones 11 73 0 21 6.64
Keshawn Martin 8 92 0 21 11.50
Bernard Reedy 4 55 0 23 13.75
Patrick Chung 4 10 0 7 2.50
Chris Harper 3 17 0 10 5.67
Damaris Johnson 2 3 0 3 1.50
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/17/2018.

Cyrus Jones, coming off an ACL tear and limited all offseason, was an electric punt returner at Alabama, with four touchdowns in his last season. Before the injury, Jones would’ve been the most explosive candidate on the roster. He could be a PUP candidate.

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Third-Down Offensive Personnel Deep Dive

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It shouldn’t be a surprise the Patriots’ third-down offense suffered without Julian Edelman in 2017, they fell from 4th to 10th in the league. Now they’ll be without Danny Amendola as well.


Using the impressive Sharp Football Analysis, I took a quick deep dive into how the offensive personnel changed between 2016 and 2017. How they compensated without Edelman…what worked, what didn’t.

Here’s what I found:

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Report: Danny Amendola Signing with Dolphins

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It looks like the end of an era with reports coming out that Danny Amendola is cashing in on a two-year, $12 million deal with $8.5 million guaranteed with the Dolphins. I think most of us just assumed after three-straight years of taking pay cuts to remain in New England that the Pats and their clutch slot receiver would find a way to tack on another year, but alas Miami was ready to pay the kind of dough the Pats wouldn’t.

Danny reduced his 2017 salary from $5 million down to $1.25 million. Now the 32-year-old receiver will make well over that as he concludes his career.

Amendola had one of the most fascinating careers of a Patriots wide receiver in the last 17 years. He came in as the supposed Wes Welker replacement but battled injuries in his first season that only empowered those who believed he was too injury prone to be the go-to slot receiver that Welker was. Julian Edelman emerged into that role leading some to label Amendola a bust, but slowly and consistently Amendola began to rack up big catches in big moments.

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Too Many Cooks Takes: Was First-Year Receiver a Disappointment?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfZkaVPwOPE

I’ve tried to take a break from the old cycle of “reporter makes dumb take, everyone responds with outrage thereby giving said reporter the attention they’re looking for” but it hasn’t been easy the last couple of days. The pinnacle was Adam Jones’ take that re-signing Brandon Bolden was somehow a bad thing.

Now I could go off on how stupid this is in a longform article — how the Patriots must build a 90-man roster and a beloved veteran who’s a special teams stud and can fill in at any running back role at a veteran minimum salary is an easy slam dunk, but again, I’m trying to break the cycle and the only way to do that is not to play their game. That take wasn’t even based in football reality, but another one kind of was.

That take came from Ben Volin, who I also ignore for the most part, that the Pats should extend Brandin Cooks or, if he won’t play ball, cut him outright and re-allocate his $8.5 million cap hit. This was a jumping off point to debate how good Cooks really was in his first year with the Pats. On paper, 65 catches for 1082 yards and six touchdowns looks pretty damn solid, especially for a first-year receiver with the Patriots.

However I do think it’s a more nuanced discussion than simply slapping down Cooks’ stats and feeling great about his season. His arrival as a “deep threat” raised expectations for the offense, but without Julian Edelman, some fundamental flaws came to light over the course of the season, that Cooks couldn’t solve.

Let’s take a deeper look and ask if a thousand-yard season can be a disappointment?

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Pats Posits: Belichick and Brady off to Super Bowl No. 8

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The Patriots defeated the Jaguars 24-20 in the AFC Championship and will return to the Super Bowl for the third time in four years where they’ll face the Philadelphia Eagles. The Patriots faced the Eagles the last time they were attempting three-of-four titles and defeated them in Super Bowl 39.

There will be plenty of time to jump into that intriguing matchup, but for now we have to talk about the AFC Championship. Really, it was one of the most remarkable games in Patriots history. The Jaguars played absolutely perfectly for the first 50 minutes. They attacked the Patriots’ weaknesses, they played mistake-free and they even knocked out Rob Gronkowski. Dion Lewis was getting nothing on the ground and the Jaguars had a number of early sustained drives.

But the Pats kept battling like they always do. Without Gronk or a running game, Brady, with some help from super clutch Danny Amendola, willed the Patriots to victory. Of course it didn’t come without the defense turning around after getting shredded early. They once again made the key plays that opened the door for the Patriots to come back. Stephon Gilmore‘s pass defense sealed what was a championship-worthy performance by a defense comprised of many new faces from last season.

I always say you can never truly appreciate a win until you’ve accepted a loss is very possible, and this game had that. Of course 28-3 has ruined us in that regard because now, more than ever, we know the Patriots are never truly out of it until the clock reads zero.

This never gets old. And the Patriots keep finding new ways to demonstrate just how mentally and physically tough they are. The Jags had all the look of the teams that beat the Patriots at home in the playoffs — the two Ravens teams and one Jets team all had a swagger about them, a fearlessness that Jacksonville seemed to emanate as well. But this time their clean game didn’t matter because the Patriots simply outplayed them in the final ten minutes.

It was perfect football in all three phases and in tight games like this that’s what makes all the difference. When it came time to finish the game the Jags couldn’t do it, and Tom Brady did.

Here are the Posits on another crazy epic playoff win.

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