Pats-Titans and Other Season Thoughts

-Less of Welker this year. Expect to see a lot of 3TE 1RB 1WR sets this season. In these sets, Welker will likely be the wide receiver coming off the field. You do not carry 4TEs on the 53-man to have two of them sit for the whole game. Likely Hoo-man will start at least this week (along with former teammate Greg Salas) as a game day inactive while he learns the playbook and acclimates himself to New England. However, after that, I could see all four TEs suiting up on gameday. This could also be a reason New England was unwilling to extend themselves on a contract for Welker, as they see his role diminishing in the coming seasons. Moral of the story, if you got him in fantasy, trade his ass cuz I don't think you are going to get value for him this year.

-As a counterpoint to the above, I am scared about Brandon Lloyd, and you should be too. One thing that has to happen in order for my previous point to stick is the emergence of Brandon Lloyd. In the preseason, he did basically nothing to impress, making only one catch. We heard such great things about him in practice, but it has yet to translate. Some people are quick to say, "oh yeah, well Randy Moss didn't have any catches during his first preseason, and then came out on a record setting year." This is true, but since when is Brandon Lloyd anywhere near the class of Randy? Randy is a surefire Hall of Famer, unquestioned top 5 receiver of all time. Lloyd, on the other hand, has only surpassed 1,000 yards once in his career. He had 1,448 in 2010 with the Broncos, and his next closest was 2005 in San Francisco with 733. I think he is a good player, but so far in the preseason we have seen zilch. Who knows? He could come out on a Randy-like tear, but I don't see it. Needless to say, I am worried here as we are going to need production out of him.

-Excited to see the new defense. I finally feel like we have completely turned over the defense from the Richard Seymour, Tedy Bruschi, Ty Law, Assante Samuel, etc. heydays of the early to mid 2000s. The defense got really old really fast after that '07 season, and they have done a quick turnaround at nearly every position. Vince is the oldest guy starting (at 30) and newcomer Steve Gregory is 29. After that, Mayo and Arrington are the next oldest at 26. This is a young defense, with 3 rookies (Hightower, Jones, and Wilson) likely seeing significant (~50% or more of snaps) time. Additionally, they seem truly stocked in the front 7. I have said it time and again that a front 7 of Jones (RDE), Love (DT), Wilfork (DT), Ninkovich/Cunningham (LDE), Mayo (WLB), Spikes (MLB), and Hightower (SLB) has potential to be top 5 in this league. I want to see how these guys do, especially against one of the best running teams in the league in the Titans. If they play to their potential, they should be a top 3 run defense team in the league, that's how good I think this front 7 is. So, lets see if they can play to that potential.

-Which McCourty do we see? I think this is the biggest question mark going into this season, and if he shows that he can be the player we all expected him to be after his Pro Bowl rookie season, this defense doesn't appear to have many weaknesses. He has the physical tools to be great, see Jason McCourty (he of the $43 million contract extension), but he seriously lost his confidence last year. If he has a good first game against Tennessee, it could be a jumping off point for another Pro Bowl season, and likely a lucrative contract extension in the offseason.