Apologies for a bit of a non sequitur, but after reading SSF's above post I was just doing some research before posting some thoughts about the Patriots and their reliance on slot-type receivers as opposed to true wide-outs, and I found that Brandon Lloyd started 15 games and was 2nd on the team in receiving yard in 2012, at close to one thousand yds. All the drinking must have killed those memory cells but I had completely forgotten about that guy.
Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
So, I looked at recent season numbers for receiving yards for non-Welker/Edelman/Amendola/TE yards in a season. It's important to note that, of course, when you have the best TE and "slot-type" receivers (though I think of W/E/A, and especially Edelman, as much more than a "slot" WR, but anyway), the other guys are going to have lesser numbers. Anyway, Moss's last great season was 2009. Since then, here are the WR who have had over 400 yards receiving in a season for the Patriots, other than TEs and the WRs mentioned above.
2015: LaFell, 515 yards
2014: LaFell, 953
2013: Dobson, 519; Thompkins 466
2012: Lloyd, 911
2011: Branch, 702
2010: Branch, 706; Tate, 432
I'm not sure what my point is, but after looking at the numbers it seems that we (or, at least, I) tend to focus on the Patriots' TEs and slot-y receivers because that is their strength, but to my mild surprise it seems that they have usually had decent production throwing to a traditional wide out as a complement to their main passing attack style as well.
Okay, this post probably doesn't belong here but I'm hitting "Reply to Thread" anyway.