Bruschi's take on Patriots WR situation

With all the talks going on about whether the Patriots draft a receiver or not, former Patriot and current ESPN analyst Tedy Bruschi had an interesting take on the matter. According to Bruschi, to be successful as a wide receiver with the Patriots, the most important quality doesn't come from their legs or hands, but from the neck up:

"These young rookie receivers coming in, all of a sudden they come back on the Monday the next day after the game and everything's different . . . What New England does, is change everything . . . Receivers have to be smart, that's almost like the number one characteristic. "

Not too much of a shock here, but coming from a former Patriots great drives in the point a little better. Bruschi couldn't emphasize enough that this was the exact reason that Chad Johnson's stint as a Patriot was a failure. Former WR Wes Welker was naturally brought up at this point, due to his incredible chemistry with quarterback Tom Brady.

BUT, the Pats don't have Welker anymore, and instead replaced him with Danny Amendola. When this topic came up, Bruschi showed a little more passion towards the topic, speaking extremely highly of Welker. Not only did he credit Welker's smarts, but he lauded the small guy's ability to get up. A fiery stance that even had the audience applaud Bruschi, even though he basically pointed out the obvious.

When speaking of Welker, Bruschi mentioned a sign that the Patriots have in their training facility. The sign reads, "Durability is more important than ability". The only criticism that Amendola has drawn recently is his durability. Bruschi sat back and said "this is the only thing Amendola has to prove to me".

The wide receiver situation for the Patriots continues to be a revolving door. Will they address the situation in the draft? Free Agency? Maybe by trade? We don't know. What we do know is that although they've submitted an offer sheet for Emmanuel Sanders in addition to various other moves this offseason, they still need to address the need in this position.

Check out this video from ESPNBoston.com. Mike Reiss, Tedy Bruschi, Trevor Matich and Trey Wingo talk about the situation and throw down some eye opening information.


Anthony Aidonidis
@aidonidis18