Versatility, Anonymity and Success: The New England Patriot Way

Thank God we have the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

That was the prevailing sentiment after New England beat the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC title game.

Thank God.

Nobody wanted the Ravens in the Super Bowl. Everyone—especially the executives at NBC—wanted New England.

I just can't figure out why? Other than Tom Brady (and Bill Belichick), do the Patriots have any real star power?

If you watched the two teams in the AFC Championship game on Sunday, don't the Ravens have more superstars?

Isn't New England really just one big megastar at quarterback and a few dozen super-talented role players around him?

I am sure this is going to aggravate people, and I swear I'm not writing this in an effort to troll the New England faithful into telling me how great Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski are. They are great.

The Patriots won 13 games in the regular season, had one of the biggest blowouts in playoff history in the second round and held on to defeat another Super-Bowl caliber team in Baltimore. Win or lose against the Giants, the Patriots are a very good team with a handful of very great players.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let us get back to the point; no matter how good they are, there really aren't a ton of household names on this team. This year's iteration of the Patriots is exactly what Belichick seems to want every year—a team of talented, yet interchangeable cogs. 

Tell me, how many times did Phil Simms and Jim Nantz confuse Welker for Julian Edelman in the AFC title game? I counted at least three. These guys have giant numbers on their shirts, and the announcers were still getting them confused. We didn't even bring Danny Woodhead into the conversation, either!  

Edelman is the quintessential Belichick player. In a five-minute span in the AFC title game, he caught a pass on offense, returned a punt and lined up in the defensive backfield. Julian Edelman!  Would you be shocked if he ends up Super Bowl MVP? With this team, I wouldn't.

Somehow it works for Belichick. Somehow, he gets the likes of Troy Brown to play defensive back or Mike Vrabel to line up at fullback and it works.

But this year it feels like the Patriots have bought into the system even more. Other than maybe Welker, who is incredibly productive for New England, but far from one of the top stars in the NFL, there really aren't any high-profile superstars anywhere to be seen.

In 2007 Brady led the best offense in football to an undefeated regular season and the Super Bowl, leaning heavily on Randy Moss. Moss caught 98 balls for 1,493 yards and 23 touchdowns that season.

Welker had 112 catches for 1175 yards and eight scores that year. If you replace Moss with Gronkowski, you can make the case the offenses from 2007 and 2011 are pretty similar. The only difference of course is that Randy Moss was already a huge star before he came to New England.

Until this year Gronkowski wasn't a star at all. Sure, he had a nice rookie year in 2010 and finished with 10 touchdowns, but he wasn't exactly Tony Gonzalez. He wasn't even Ben Coates. He was a tight end—albeit a very good tight end—doing his job in relative anonymity.

If you think I'm wrong, go back and watch Sunday's game. Did you hear how excited Nantz got when he got to call out Logan Mankins' name late in the fourth quarter? It was likely because Mankins, who plays one of the most anonymous positions on the field, was one of the only players Nantz could remember!

BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who played very well against the Ravens defense, led the Patriots in rushing this season with 667 yards.

In a big spot in the first game of the playoffs, New England used tight end Aaron Hernandez to run the ball, another talented, versatile cog.

The Patriots' second-leading rusher this season was Stevan Ridley, who amassed 90 yards more than Woodhead in 10 more carries and has joined the witness protection program after being deactivated for the AFC title game following fumbles in his last two games.

The Patriots are running back by committee, linebacker by committee, defensive backs by committee…the list goes on. And it works.

Okay, fine, the receivers have some name value. I suppose Deion Branch is a household name if only for what he did in his first go-round with the Patriots. Branch did have 51 catches for just over 700 yards this season.

Ochocinco? Remember him? He's a name. He was also inactive for the AFC title game after his father passed away, and nobody even seemed to notice. The most out-going and dynamic force in the NFL in the last decade—at least off the field—somehow became completely anonymous when he moved to New England. 

Surely, the defense has some names we've heard of. Vince Wilfork is one. After that…um, well…Devin McCourty made the Pro Bowl as a rookie and was third on the team in tackles this year. The other cornerback, Kyle Arrington, had the most solo tackles on the team and was second in combined tackles to Jerod Mayo.

These are names who could eventually become big stars in the league. Mayo, Brandon Spikes and Rob Ninkovich could become the next Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi and Willie McGinest. Patrick Chung could certainly become the next Rodney Harrison. Again, just because they are anonymous now, doesn't mean they will always stay that way.

Maybe I'm selling the Patriots' name power short. Everyone knows who Welker is, even if he rarely does any national interviews and best I can tell, isn’t featured in any national marketing campaigns. Certainly everyone knows who Gronkowski is after the season he had, so while they may not be on Brady's level, there are at least two names people can recognize, even if their faces are still largely unknown.

That's the beauty of the Super Bowl.

We have two weeks to make this team into superstars. Certainly, if the Patriots beat the Giants, a lot more players will become household names. That means it's only a matter of time before Belichick gets rid of them in favor of another crop of anonymous, Super Bowl talent to surround his Hall of Fame quarterback. For now, this group is pretty good…whoever they are.