Chad Ochocinco: How Will He Fit into New England Patriots Offense?

The New England Patriots took a clear turn toward a different style of offense, having traded away Randy Moss and shifting the focus toward the two tight ends and the smaller receivers like Wes Welker and Deion Branch.

Chad Ochocinco, however, adds a big presence on the outside that the Patriots clearly lacked in their playoff defeat to the New York Jets. At 6'1" and 192 pounds, Ochocinco is tied with Brandon Tate as the tallest receiver on the roster.

He also brings experience. With 10 years in the league, Ochocinco is the most experienced receiver on the roster.

With that size and experience comes the ability to impact the game in multiple ways. He will be counted on as a sure-handed pass-catcher with the ability to run multiple routes effectively.

That being said, this article from WEEI.com's Christopher Price is revealing on several levels.

A question posed to the guys at Pro Football Focus was answered with the PFF guys saying, "[Ocho is] a pretty slick route runner, and he hasn’t lost all of his speed, but he’s not really a deep threat—as everybody has been clamoring for [New England] to bring in since that playoff game."

The Patriots have relied heavily on yards after catch, and were one of the league's best teams after the catch in 2010. As a team, they had 6.19 AYAC (average yards after catch), which was the fourth-highest in the league. 50.9 percent of their receiving yards came on YAC.

Ochocinco's average of just 2.9 indicates that he does most of his work before the catch in running his routes, thus he doesn't get much separation from his defensive backs and gets brought down rather quickly after making the catch.

All that being said, Tom Brady has often done his best work with veteran receivers. Young receivers have a hard time catching on at times. Guys like Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson and other youngsters have flamed out because they simply couldn't stay on the field when competing with guys like David Patten, David Givens, Troy Brown and other veterans for playing time.

Practice is where the players get a chance to get reps and to earn playing time, but on game day, it comes down to who gives the team the best chance to win.

In that sense, it really comes down to three things: getting open, solid hands and football intelligence. Ochocinco definitely brings all three.

Of course, the need for a physical outside receiver was magnified in the playoff loss to the New York Jets. In that sense, Ochocinco's contributions could still be a question mark. After all, he has failed to consistently get open against Darrelle Revis any time the two have faced each other.

Thus, Ochocinco seems like a solid fit for the Patriots offense and he will probably jump through hoops to impress his buddy, Bill Belichick.

Just don't expect Ochocinco to single-handedly decide the outcome of any Pats-Jets duels.

Erik Frenz is the co-host of the PatsPropaganda and Frenz podcast. Follow Erik on Twitter @erikfrenz.