HE WAS PUTTING UP ALL OF THOSE #1 NUMBERS AS THE #2 TE. BETTER PRODUCTION AS THE NUMBER #2 TE THAN OUR ENTIRE TE CORE FOR 7 YEARS. HE ALSO MADE GAME WINNING PLAYS.
Right, but he was putting up those numbers (in his one season of putting up really good numbers)
because the team was functionally giving him the workload of a starting WR.
If the Patriots put a conventional 1-TE offense on the field and their #2 WR, their third leading receiver (behind Gronk and Welker), got 79 catches for 900 yards and 7 TDs, it would've been a nice season by a good player, but nothing to lose your mind over. Just like none of us lost our minds over Crayton's 2007 or Cobb's 2019.
And their running game was pretty pitiful that year with their leading rusher only getting 600-something yards and not even cracking 4 yards per carry. So it's not like the 2-TE formation gave them a blocking advantage they enjoyed.
They were just a passing team that made the unusual choice to line up in 2-TE offenses constantly that year and chose to give their 2nd TE a more prominent role (30 more catches) than their 2nd WR. We've had offenses where the guy filling the #2 WR role or the third-leading receiver posted similar or better numbers. And not once did our minds explode over it. And our running game was better despite not being a 2-TE setup.
If that Patriots team had been a great running team, then I would buy the narrative that their 2-TE scheme was genius and a game-changer.
It's like if somebody decided to line up a pure receiver at fullback and scheme to give him good third-receiver numbers, people would be impressed. Because when does a FB post that kind of production these days? But if their running game was bad, then that undercuts the benefit. They could've stuck a slot WR on the field and easily gotten the same production (maybe even better production if forcing the defense to put an extra corner on the field makes them weaker against the run while the WR still matches or bests the receiving production the FB would've given).
If we put a pass-catching FB on the field next year and give him the workload of a WR in our passing game and our run-blocking is bad, no one is going to say, "Oh my God, they re-invented the wheel. Give that fullback a 5 year, $40 million dollar extension!" The Pats listed a slot receiver as a TE, enjoyed zero of the blocking benefits that usually come with putting a 2nd TE on the field instead of a 3rd WR, and everyone acted like they'd cracked the code. They didn't.