Apparently New England doesn't need Randy Moss

[Markos]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/ ... id=2857556

This guy argues that Moss and Stallworth are identical players. Thus since we already have one great wide receiver we don't need a second one. The Moss pickup was "unecessary"

Can anyone point out the logic in his argument?

[Basketball Jesus]

Other than that one

[Markos]

Stallworth
Depth Att Comp Yds TD INT Pen P-Yds YPA
Short 166 110 1069 5 4 6 35 6.7
Medium 63 29 535 2 2 2 10 8.7
Deep 68 26 824 7 1 1 5 12.2
Total 297 165 2428 14 7 9 50 8.3

Moss
Depth Att Comp Yds TD INT Pen P-Yds YPA
Short 119 81 639 7 1 7 17 5.5
Medium 84 47 768 3 5 4 -25 8.8
Deep 99 24 934 15 6 6 150 10.9
Total 302 152 2341 25 12 17 142 8.2

[Markos]

At a first glance, it would seem the Patriots acquired two receivers with identical skill sets, but the possible saving grace is Stallworth's short pass numbers. Stallworth not only averaged 1.2 more yards on short passes, which is significant at that level, he also was thrown a much higher percentage of short passes than Moss. Stallworth's short pass attempts accounted for 55.9 percent of his total attempts, while Moss' short passes accounted for only 39.4 percent of his total pass attempts.

Those numbers would seem to indicate the Pats will be better served using Stallworth as a short pass target, but his deep pass YPA has gone up from 2004 (7.4) to 2006 (19.5). Moss' deep pass YPA numbers have decreased from 2004 (13.3) to 2006 (5.5). Those numbers seem to indicate Stallworth is also the better deep pass target, but if that is the case, what value does Moss give the Patriots?

[Markos]

Lastly, I got a subscription to ESPn the mag for $10 for a year and Insider came with it.....not the worst of deals

[captain_cheapseats]

Can anyone point out the logic in his argument?

There is none. Moss is one of the best WRs in the NFL and a premier deepthreat; the only way signing him could be unnecessary would be if you already had, say, Holt, Harrison and Boldin at WR.

However, if the argument were reversed he might have something. I'm guessing if Pioli knew they would be able to get Moss, and that Johnson would be cut and available on the cheap, the Pats wouldn't have picked up Stallworth. But hindsight is 20/20, and there's no such thing as having too many good WRs.