Obviously Antonio Brown has some off-field concerns that could make all of this moot if the Patriots release him or he's placed on the commissioner's exempt list. But he practiced on Wednesday and appears to be full-steam ahead toward the Week 2 game against the Dolphins, so we're going to treat it like Brown is set to play on Sunday.
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We all know how talented Brown is. The Patriots didn't fork over that contract to some bum while Julian Edelman has to take less. He's fast, explosive, has great feet and can win any route from any position on the field.
But the same could have been said about Chad Ochocinco, and he never meshed with Tom Brady. It doesn't matter how talented a receiver is, he has to see the defense exactly the same as Brady and run the correct route precisely to Brady's specifications.
There are some concerns about Brown on that front, and we'll get into those concerns. But probably the most damning statistic for Brown is that a league-leading 11 interceptions were thrown on passes intended for him last season, and 31 in the previous four seasons. That leads the league, according to ProFootballFocus.com.
That can't be good, can it?
Well, not exactly. We went over those 31 interceptions (actually, 30 of them because one was not assigned to Brown in the official play logs). The results, once we assigned blame to either Brown, the quarterback or it was simply too-close-to-call, were actually surprising and make you feel a little better with Brown getting on the same page as Brady.
Let's go over each of them:
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