by Jim Bearor

One of my favorite football clichés is the quarterback who makes everyone around him better.  I love this because everyone eats it up and writes up great seasons by no-name receivers as just a product of the guy throwing them the ball.

Sometimes this isn’t the case, but when someone like T.Y. Hilton has a breakout year, Andrew Luck gets credit.  The biggest example of this in the league right now has to be Julian Edelman, Tom Brady’s newest small athletic white passcatcher.  Coming into the year, many thought Danny Amendola would fill that void left by Wes Welker, but apparently not.  However, in a parallel universe where Edelman doesn’t exist, I’d bet that Amendola is the guy that hauled in 100 passes this year.

What I’m trying to say is: Maybe Wes Welker isn’t as special as Belichick and Brady made him look.  Maybe any shifty little slot receiver that is smart enough to understand the offense can have success in New England.  After all, Tom Brady deserves most of the credit for all of these catches being made by his not-so-talented teammates, right?

Yeah, probably. Outside of Randy Moss for a brief time, Brady has never had one of those wide receivers that commentators and fans marvel at the second he steps on the field.

            A Patriots Christmas Story

It might be hard to visualize this because of the lifestyle he lives outside of the lines, but think of Tom Brady as the kid who never got the Xbox or laptop for Christmas.

 He’s the kid that got very little and never complained. Tom’s toys might be a set of Lincoln Logs, a ball in a cup, and maybe an old dog from the local pound if he was lucky, yet he played with them in such a way that made every kid on the block jealous. 

These toys were certainly not broken, but they weren’t as big and shiny as the holiday season’s top sellers.  For a while, people might have thought that all of these things were diamonds in the rough, toys that would look great in anybody’s hands if they knew where to look for them.  But as time passed, and Tom gave his toys to the other kids and had just as much fun with the “new” things he was picking up from the Salvation Army, everyone else realized what had been happening all along – Tom made his toys look better than they really were.

This little story – as cheesy and stupid as it is – is exactly what has been happening in New England for upwards of 10 years.  Papa Belichick never spoiled his kid, but he never needed to, because Tom Brady was raised the right way in a great home.

While Wes Welker might not be a ball-in-a-cup, and Julian Edelman would surely be upset if he heard me comparing him to a set of Lincoln Logs, it should be clear to everyone what is going on with the Patriots – Tom Brady is making the best of his surroundings, and everyone else is benefitting from this.

Lincoln Logs and Ball-in-a-Cup

On a slightly different page, let’s compare “Lincoln Logs” with “Ball-in-a-Cup.” How special is Wes Welker in everyone’s eyes now that Edelman has done a great job in his old role with New England?

            Well, Wes has shown that his career with the Patriots wasn’t a fluke – he’s having a respectable season in Denver, considering the level of talent above him on the depth chart.  He caught 73 balls for 778 yards and 10 TDs, and he is always an option out of the slot for Peyton Manning.

            Edelman though, brought in 105 catches for 1,056 yards and 6 touchdowns.  These numbers are not so dissimilar, but they show that Edelman played a bigger role in his offense.  In fact, he played a different role than Wes did when he was with the Pats.

            We all know that both of these guys have abilities that are conducive to being a slot receiver: they are small, shifty, and good at finding a zone’s soft spot.  What isn’t so commonly known is that Julian Edelman only played the slot position 49 percent of the time that he was on the field, compared to Welker’s 84 percent (Pro Football Focus). 

You might say that it would be foolish to put Welker anywhere else outside of the slot, especially when those spots are occupied by bigger, stronger wideouts with better hands like Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas – and you would be right.  But the point I’m making is if that Edelman is filling Welker’s shoes and then some, doesn’t that diminish Wes’ perceived value?

If I had to pick one of the two to be on my team right now, I would go with Edelman.   He can play outside the hashmarks, he has proven that he has a great understanding of the game – he made a great transition from college quarterback to professional wide receiver – and I have more faith in him catching a ball for my team in a big spot.

But then again, nobody bothers comparing Lincoln Logs with a Ball-in-a-Cup.  We like talking about the shiny things.