Bill Belichick on Aaron Dobson: ‘Always been respectful’ to coaches
The New England Patriots are not sitting wide receiver Aaron Dobson for any argument he might have had.
Head coach Bill Belichick issued a statement after reports had surfaced that Dobson had been sat the past two games for “mouthing off” to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
Belichick’s statement read:
“In my year and a half with Aaron Dobson, he has always been respectful to me and to the rest of the coaching staff. He has never once been argumentative or confrontational. The suggestion and reporting that his playing time was in any way the result of a ‘loud disagreement’ with a coach is completely false.”
Belichick typically doesn’t issue statements of this nature, and it’s a strong denial, so it should be taken at or close to face value, we’d think. Earlier in the day, in speaking with WEEI Radio in Boston, Belichick said that Dobson was sitting for “football reasons.”
The coach also is notoriously hush hush on injuries, so we’re naturally wondering whether his lack of playing time is related to the fact that his foot (on which he had offseason surgery) is healing slower than expected or that Dobson’s development as a player is the issue. Or both?
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Look, the Patriots badly need an offensive spark. Tom Brady has been off, the offensive line has been a sieve, the running game has been stuck in neutral and the wide receivers don’t separate from coverage. They’ve gotten off to slow starts offensively in recent years, but this feels different.
What is not different is the fact that the Patriots really only have developed two homegrown wide receivers in the past, oh, 12 years or so — Deion Branch and Julian Edelman — who have developed into front-line performers who can be counted on each week. Even Edelman hasn’t been at his best this season. Really, no one on the Patriots’ offense has.
But the inability to draft and develop wide receivers has reached almost epidemic status. Dobson was a second rounder in 2013, the same year they spent a fourth-rounder on Josh Boyce, who went unclaimed after the Patriots cut him and now sits idly on their practice squad.
With the 59th pick they used on Dobson, the Patriots could have had Keenan Allen, Terrance Williams or Markus Wheaton (all taken in the subsequent 20 selections). Those three players are ranked first, second and fifth, respectively, among second-year wide receivers in receptions this season.
Since the year the Patriots drafted Branch in 2002, they have drafted 11 wide receivers — with six of those coming in the first four rounds. Of the wideouts they have taken in that span, only three remain on the active roster: Edelman, Dobson and Matthew Slater, who makes his living as a special-teams ace and seldom plays on offense.
Might be time for a new system for evaluating wideouts in New England.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
