New England Patriots: Are Brandon Tate, Taylor Price Missing Pieces to Offense?

When the New England Patriots elected to use back-to-back selections on running backs in the 2011 NFL draft, many fans were appalled at the move. With two capable young backs already in the fold, what good could adding two more possibly serve?

The answer, as I explored in a recent article, was to diversify the attack and make the backfield one of the most complete in the NFL.

One area of the offense the Patriots didn't add any firepower in the draft was at wide receiver.

With the increased focus on the rookie tight ends in the offense, the group of Deion Branch, Wes Welker and Brandon Tate proved to be enough.

The biggest knock on the receiving corps, though, was the lack of a deep threat.

This weakness was exposed in the playoff loss to the Jets. Rex Ryan's defense muddied the middle of the field and manned up their physical, talented cover corners on New England's smaller, agile receivers in press coverage. The plan worked brilliantly, as they held the Patriots to just 21 points, their lowest total since their Week 9 loss to the Browns.

Thus, it appears the blueprint has been laid out for success against the Patriots. That theory is faulty, though, simply because an opposing defense must have the appropriate personnel to run that blueprint effectively.

You can have the blueprint to the Taj Mahal, but you can't build it unless you have the parts.

Over the course of the final eight weeks of the season, the Patriots were nearly impossible to stop through the air.

The Patriots finished second in the league in yards per pass attempt last year at 7.23, but 50.9 percent of their total receiving yards came after the catch. To put that in perspective, yards after catch only accounted for 42.6 percent of the Colts' total passing offense. That's very telling of how the Patriots get their yards in the passing game.

Of course, it still doesn't make them easy to stop.

Receiver wasn't the biggest need for them going into the draft. In fact, it wasn't truly a need at all. After all, they got plenty of production out of Welker and Branch. Additionally, they drafted Taylor Price in the third round last year, and Brandon Tate just two years ago in the second round.

Some might argue that small receivers such as Welker and Branch make the offense somewhat one-dimensional. If the Patriots look to address that, they could look to do so from within through the development of Tate and Price.

Not only are these two the tallest receivers on the Patriots roster at 6'1" and 6' respectively, but those are guys who have carried the potential of being a "field stretcher" for the Patriots.

Price only saw the field in garbage time against the Miami Dolphins in the final game of the season, tallying three catches for 41 yards in that game. It was essentially a red-shirt year for Price, and who knows how much we'll see of him this year with players still feeling the effects of the lockout.

Some fans are ready to write of Tate, but it's not as though the Patriots are looking for him or Price to burst onto the scene with a 1,000-yard season, though. Plus, he only has one full season of experience, but he has two seasons in the system (the first was spent mostly off the field due to injuries).

Here are the stat lines for both Tate and Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White in their first years: 24 catches, 432 yards, three touchdowns; and 29 catches, 446 yards, three touchdowns.

Being that White has made three consecutive Pro Bowls and was voted first-team All-Pro this past year, cut Tate some slack. He's also now two seasons removed from reconstructive knee surgery.

What Tate and Price would bring to the offense is that all-important diversity. With a legitimate threat to "take the top off the defense," the Patriots would have a receiving corps that could do it all, from making catches up the middle to creating yards after the catch to stretching the field and everything in between.

If the Patriots can add a solid vertical threat from within, while building on the success of Welker, Branch and the tight ends from last year, their offense could be almost as successful as the 2007 campaign.

For that purpose, the Patriots had better hope the lockout ends soon. Valuable time is wasting in the development of these receivers. Even the OTAs at the beginning of summer are an integral opportunity for first- and second-year players to continue to learn the system.