The Patriots Activate Demaryius Thomas and Now They Have a Problem: Too Much Talent at WR

What a difference five days can make. A week ago, the Patriots were doing joint practices with the Titans in Nashville. And as my son put it, “I heard Brady had a great practice. Then I heard the guys he was throwing to and I swear to God I’d never heard any of their names before.”

And with good reason. If Brady took a group photo with his receiving corps, it would’ve looked like he was posing with some group on an outing from a local summer camp. It was Gunner Olszweski, Damoun Patterson and Ryan Davis. And even with his most important target only out with a sprained thumb and expected to return, the wide receiver spot wasn’t just paper thin, looked rolling paper thin.

Now, just since Friday night, they’ve added:

– Josh Gordon, who not only has a 1,600-yard season on his record, last year averaged 18.0 Yards Per Reception.
— Julian Edelman, the best slot receiver in the league and the most successful WR in team history
— Demaryius Thomas, a durable 5-time Pro Bowler with four straight seasons of over 1,300 yards who once had 1,000 yards catching passes from Trevor fricking Siemian.

Now suddenly the script has been flipped. And that blunt paper receiving unit looks stacked. To the point where they now have the opposite problem. Where they don’t have to worry about who’s going to get open when Edelman faces bracket coverage on every down. They face the decidedly Champagne Problem of about whom to cut.

Advertisement

This is totally premature speculation. But my physician says a lot of men have that problem so what the hell:

Mortal locks:
Edelman
Gordon
N’Keal Harry
Jakobi Meyers

It’d be a surprise if they got cut, though not at a Lawyer Milloy level:
Thomas
Phillip Dorsett
Maurice Harris

Are currently scrambling and need to take a job from one of the above:
Braxton Berrios
Patterson
Olszweski
Davis

This will be especially hard to sort out on a team that’s hoping to carry three quarterbacks and at least six running backs (Michel, White, Develin, Damien Harris, Burkhead and Bolden) and some guys who are pure Special Teamers.

That’s what taking Thomas off of PUP has done to this depth chart. It’s put a second year guy like Berrios, who’s shown flashes of being a slot receiver in the Troy Brown/Wes Welker/Edelman/Danny Amendola mold that is the Flux Capacitor to this offense (not to mention sell a lot of No. 14 jerseys), in danger of not making the roster. The same with Harris, who has experience in the league and was looking to give them a tall, physical, 6-foot-3, 205 lb red zone option. Now they’re in danger of being put in a box and donated to the Sunnydale Day Care Center.

It just goes to show that, in the same way you can lose all your depth in a matter of a few hours, if you manage your personnel correctly, you can gain it just as fast. It’s not as easy as losing it, obviously. But smart teams give themselves options and are patient when they take a chance on a guy. That it how the rich keep getting richer.