Last week I had a long argument with a friend regarding the Randy Moss trade. My friend felt with Moss gone, the Patriots passing game would suffer horribly. I argued that the Patriots offense is like a machine, with Moss just being an expensive part that wasn’t necessary. And as all of us on a budget know, you can always find some cheap part that will work just fine enough to keep the machine working a little longer. Hello Deion Branch.
The lil guy exploded on the scene with 9 catches for 98 yards and 1 touchdown, 5 days after being traded from Seattle and almost matching his first 4 game statistics with the Seahawks.
To be fair, I did acknowledge the fact that with Moss gone the deep passing game would be affected but stated that Aaron Hernandez would definitely become more involved. How did he respond? With 4 catches for 61 yards and 1 run for 18 yards. Also, he had a long of 30 yards, with Moss’ 2010 longest reception being 35 yards. I lose that argument because of those 5 yards right? Wrong. Hernandez has also had a long of 45 and 46 this season which arguably made him the best deep threat on the Patriots through the first four games.
Rebuttal?
Jam Technique 
Even more alarming is the fact that branch was targeted 12 times….. the NE machine will roll on as belichick is ever evolving and tom brady is ever excellent.
Moss is still a beast, and he’s back in 84 thats all matters, they’ll miss him
First, Moss is not the receiver he was when the Minnesota Vikings traded him to the Oakland Raiders a few years ago. He plays on a team with Tom Brady as the quarterback but only had 9 catches in four games. There are three receivers that have considerably more catches than him; meaning he was no longer the go-to guy there or just wasn’t performing like one.
I also question the timing of the signing a bit. Moss has never played in a West Coast offense before and there is going to be some adjustment needed. Knowing this, you think the Vikings would have made more of an effort to land him earlier in the year now that they are entering a long stretch against some very good teams and he won’t have time to learn or develop a rapport with Favre (who he has never played with).
Not to mention, if you look at his history, he hasn’t been as great as people think he is when he hasn’t had a receiver opposite of him that could draw coverage. When he was in Minnesota before, he had Cris Carter. And, in New England, he had Wes Welker. In Oakland, he didn’t have anyone and was average. And, with the injuries the Vikings have right now, that will be the same.
The Patriots will be fine, the offense they run is very hard to stop a shit load of crossing routes that always leaves somebody open as long as Brady has time to throw there will be someone there. They were more productive before Moss got there back when they had a bunch of no name WR that didnt reach 1000 yds thats when they won the super bowls, with Moss Brady felt he always had to try and get him the ball rather than just hit an open target. They will do just fine with anybody because of their coaches and their playbook, dont think so play madden with them look at the routes they run and see if you have any problem finding at least one open man every single play!