Antonio Brown no longer is a member of the Patriots, but some might argue New England never needed the star wide receiver to begin with.
Brown joined the Patriots after the reigning Super Bowl champions blew the doors off the Pittsburgh Steelers in their season opener. The seven-time Pro Bowl selection’s lone game with New England was a productive one, as he caught four passes for 56 yards with a touchdown.
The beat went on for Bill Belichick and Co. in Week 3, which seemed to suggest the Patriots will be more than fine without AB. That might end up proving true, but Ryan Clark doesn’t believe New England now is better with Brown out of the equation.
“Listen, this question is easy for me. They are not better off without Antonio Brown,” Clark said Monday on ESPN’s “First Take.” “If you watch that Miami game, Tom Brady clearly understood who the best wide receiver on this team was. You can go back to the game (Sunday), it was drops by (Julian) Edelman, Josh Gordon with drops. The one guy, even though he’s 5-foot-10, that if he has a 1-on-1 matchup that’s going to win is Antonio Brown.
” … You’re talking about a team that’s dealt with videotapes, Deflategate, an owner who was in a massage parlor and was accused of a crime. Like, this team has dealt with nonsense outside of their locker room forever. They’ve also dealt with guys who’ve had issues away from the field or guys who people have thought have torn down teams outside of New England that have toed the line in New England in order for them to win. So this is a team that though they may hate answering the questions has always had questions to answer. But when you think Jakobi Meyers, N’Keal Harry who’s on IR right now, Josh Gordon, Julian Edelman, Phillip Dorsett, any of these guys that you can name, none of them are Antonio Brown. We saw that from the moment he stepped on the field against the Miami Dolphins. The comfort Tom Brady had throwing him the ball. The ease in which he felt when he saw Antonio Brown had a 1-on-1 matchup because he’s not only one of the best receivers that’s ever played, he is the greatest receiver statistically of his era. For a guy that size, for a guy to be drafted in the sixth round when there are Julio Jones and there are Odell Beckham Jr.’s and there are DeAndre Hopkins, to be better than all of those guys statistically is unheard of. So to say that you get better on the field without Antonio Brown is crazy. Ask the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Clark might be putting a little too much stock in Brown’s performance against the Dolphins, who are on pace for a historically bad season. While the defensive back-turned-analyst interprets Brady’s targets for Brown as the Patriots QB throwing to his best option, the case can be made New England simply was trying to accelerate AB’s learning process. Brady already knows what he has in Edelman, Gordon and Dorsett, while Brown was tasked with being integrated into an offense that already was poised to be a well-oiled machine prior to his arrival. It almost seemed like New England was trying to get Brown’s touches out of the way. Brady and AB connected three times on the Patriots’ opening drive against the Dolphins and only once for the rest of the game.
Given New England’s treasure trove of offensive weapons, Brown effectively was going to be the cherry on top. He didn’t work out, but the Patriots can take solace in the fact that they still have a pretty damn good sundae in front of them.
