If you take away the huge advantage at qb the pats have who do think has the better roster? I think we do.Better WRS,if gronk is not healthy TE,and even RB because I think miller is going to breakout.The pats have the better line. On defence we have a better defensive line as a group. I think we have better LBS as a group over the pats.I will give them a slight edge at corner but will go with us at safety. The pats always seem to outplay us on special teams so I will give them the edge there. You look at our advantages and you would think we would run away with division.Tanny needs to step up this year and be the guy because this team has the talent to win now.
Qb is kind of the only position that matters on offense though. Greatness trickles down from there. So despite having more talent on offense, we do not have a better offense. Tannehill can take the steps this year to give us one soon, but for now Pats have the better offense. Our defense is absolutely better though at almost every position. but still...Brady still puts the ball in their court IMO.
That being said, letting Welker walk will hurt them and I thought it was pretty dumb of them. He made plays that yu simply can't replace and he did it in every game. Dump off screens and slants and quick passes, the guy is the best in the league at what he does. His timing and rapport with Brady was perfect and theres no doubt Brady will miss him. The patriots WRs will be fine but I was thrilled when Welker became a Bronco. We had no chance of covering welker correctly. I know amendola is their new guy and their hoping it all works out but i dont think it matters. Hes no welker.
I like to think our defense is markedly better than theirs as well, but all the ratings show them around 7, and us around 19...SMH. I'm obviously missing something.
Without Brady, probably still the Patriots. Three-headed attack at RB (Ridley, Vereen, Blount) that I'd take over ours, Gronkowski and Ballard over our TE's, their OL over ours, HOF DT in Wilfork, Mayo-Spikes-Hightower>Wheeler-Ellerbe-Misi, and that's it. We get WR, D-Line, and CB.
I think they were #1 in takeaways and their run defense was better than ours. What ratings have them at 19? They were ranked 25th in total defense while we were rated 21st last year.
Objectively... HC Pats QB Pats RB Pats WR Mia TE Pats OL Pats DL Mia LB Push CB NE S Mia K NE P Mia KR/PR Mia So I'd say NE, especially at the most important spots.
We might have better players but the Patriots have a better team for sure.I hope that changes but they are a consistantly good team.
amendola is better than welker, imo. I think he can do everything welker can, just as good if not better and more. If he and gronk stay healthy the Pats are set till Brady retires.
This! Football is a team chemistry sport, more than others. They are a FAR better team...even if we may have marginally better talent at a few positions. Esp being that QB is such a vital component...They have one of the top two or three QBs to ever play the game. Our QB is only slightly better than Matt Moore. Bottom line...its not really close. NE will have this division locked up by week 14...again.
Except his is as brittle as can be. Has he ever played an entire 16 game season yet? Once in 4 years. Amendola staying healthy is a very big "IF".
The last two injuries he's had have been flukes. Honestly, I would of rather have signed Amendola than resigned Hartline.
Dislocated elbow'sand dislocated clavicle's don't strike me as common. I don't think he's as brittle as most would suggest. Super talented too. Worth the risk, whatever that may be. He's essentially on a two year 10 million deal. Would have rather we signed him than Hartline or Gibson. Especially with his ability to play inside and out. QB: NE RB: NE... for now. WR: Miami (small margin, both are weak). TE: NE OL: NE DL: Miami LB: Miami (I like our speed and athleticism better) CB: NE S: Miami KR: ??? Is Thigpen a sure thing to make the team? K: NE P: Miami Offense: NE > Miami Defense: Miami > NE
They have one key component that we don't and can never reach with our current roster. One of, if not the greatest QB of All-Time. 1st Ballot unanimous HOF. As a Michigan Alum. - I just cannot hate the guy. As a Dolphins fan - I wish he would retire or get old already. Switch QB's with N.E. and we sweep them. Brady retires this second and Ryan Mallet takes over and we probably sweep them.
They are much better in the wins/loss and championships columns. If they ever change the game to on paper players we should have 3 championships just from the Marino era.
Sadly, I'd probably have to agree with this. LB is tough. I'd maybe give us the edge at LB, if at all its barely though. So, all in all if we're being objected and not homers about this, this is probably right.
They have Brady, the question is do we have another Jason Taylor in Cam Wake plus help on the left side of our D line to become Brady killers??????????? All the rest is just so much clutter and given the time we play them this year I give us a better than even chance to split our 2 games.
Ballard is an unknown and god knows when Gronk is coming back. So as of now, we do have the better TEs.
New England is significantly better than Miami at QB and on the OL. They might be the NFL's best at both. And while we might be more talented at running back, their running game is unquestionably better. Pats were 2nd in carries, 7th in yards and 1st in rushing TDs last year. Lamar Miller shows promise, but Stevan Ridley is already good. Nearly 1300 yards and 12 TDs last year and they think he could make a jump this year. Behind him is a 250-pound former 1000-yard rusher in LaGarrett Blount. Without Gronk we're better at TE now. But if he comes back they're elite there. Will be interesting to see how Jake Ballard fits. Defensively they're the NFL's best at taking the ball away. We might have the better roster and all that, but takeaways are the theme for Joe Philbin in 2013.
Snips, I'm not breaking your balls, but I get so annoyed when I hear statements like this. I know I'll get blasted after I post this, but QB is NOT the mot important position on offense; it's one of them, but not THE most important. Give Tom Brady the offensive line of say...the Jacksonville Jaguars. Does anyone here really think he'd be terrorizing the passing game? What does make QB one of the most important positions on offense though is the leadership the other 10 players are looking for in the huddle but I'm a die hard firm believer that EVERYTHING on offense starts with that offensive line. If the OL doesn't rush block, the RB is dropped behind the line of scrimmage and gains nothing If the OL doesn't pass block... - he doesn't have time to set to throw the ball - he scrambles to avoid getting sacked - he gets sacked - he gets stripped of the ball Tom Brady's been exposed. Put HEAT on him and he's inefficient and I do believe we've upgraded our defense enough in the off season to put that heat on Brady and every other quarterback in the league to cause turnovers and give our offense short fields to work with.
I agree that NE is better at QB and OL. I think we have more talented RBs, but their OL/RB combination translates to a better running game. We have better receivers and they would be better at TE if their guys were healthy, but as it stands I expect we'll have better TEs playing for us for the majority of games. That being said, I still expect their QB/WR/TE combination will translate to a better passing game. I believe we closed the gap on both the run game and pass game. The key, of course, is how much have we closed the gap. On defense, I think we're arguably better at every level DL/LB/CB/S. I would say LB is close, but everything else is a significant advantage for Miami. I think our combination of players will translate to both a better run D and a better pass D. Their advantage last year was all the TOs they generated. Part of that is that their offense scored well and often made opponents one dimensional. Historically, TOs tend to fluctuate from year to year so they may not be able to rely on that as much this season. They should still be able to make opponents one dimensional, but maybe not as much since I expect they'll rely more on their run game this season. That should help keep their D fresher, but won't have the same effect of putting opponents in as many "must pass" situations. I think the odds are decent that we'll close the gap or even surpass them in terms of TOs generated by the D. On balance, O is more important than D (in terms of efficiency). I know that is sacrilege to some, but every correlation study I've ever seen gives O a slight advantage when it comes to correlation with wins. So even if we surpass them by a bit on the D side, we'll need to close the gap significantly on O to actually be a better overall team.
Not sure our defense is that much better than theirs. We finished 2012 reg season 7th in points allowed (19.8); they finished 9th (20.7). They had 41 takeaways to our...16... And yea, we haven't beaten them since 2009.
That makes no sense. So once we win the division then they can't make the comparison? The team trying to make it to the top of the division always compares itself to the team currently at the top.
The reason it makes sense is that we can speculate all we want about a bunch of names and individual statistics, but until they've actually played together and won something, there is no real basis for comparing it to player performance on a team that has actually won something together. It's counting your chickens before they're hatched.
Absolutely correct. With Brady and Belichick with the Patriots, they are good for at least 11-12 wins this season. The Dolphins will be lucky to go 8-8 with the roster they have at this time. The Dolphin defense is probably better than the Patriots, but the Patriots offense is probably 14-17 points better per game than the Dolphins offense. Offense is what it takes to win in the NFL today and Brady has proved over time that he can get the job done even with mediocre talent around him. Tannehill, Miller, and the Dolphins offensive line still remain huge question marks going into this season.
The logical outcome of what you're saying is that only winners can be compared to winners, thereby making comparisons....obsolete. You are literally not arguing against this specific comparison but any and all comparisons ever.
Not all comparisons ever. A comparison of a roster that has not yet played together against a winning roster.
Not based on your explanation. The nature of this comparison isn't to compare the entirety of one team vs. the entirety of another team, its to compare individual players against their counterparts on other teams. In that regard, its perfectly fine to compare Amendola to Wallace, for example, and say of the two Wallace is better, and there are, in fact, on the field, reasons to support that.
That's ironic because the 2013 Patriots have neither played together nor won anything. You don't get to pick up where you left off at the end of the previous season, each team has to go out and prove themselves every year.
