FanPost

What should we expect from Boyce & Dobson in 2013?

The transition for WRs from college to the NFL is one of the hardest for any position. The depth chart right now for WRs looks like this.

Amendola (lock)

Edelman (lock)

Jones

Dobson (lock)

Boyce (lock)

Moe

Slater (lock)

Moe and Jones are long shots to make the team seeing as it's unlikely the pats carry 6 WRs and we already have 5 locks for the final roster. So our 2 best WRs are Amendola and Edelman, but they play the exact same position. Neither of them are really X WRs, so they increases the changes of us seeing Dobson and Boyce get a lot of playing time. Not to mention the fact both Edelman and Amendola have struggled with injuries since entering the league, and Hernandez misses about 3-4 games every year, we could defintely see one or both of these rookies starting at least 5 games this season. What should we expect from them. Rookie WRs don't usually make an immediate impact like say a RB or CB, so hat would be fair to expect? Well Dobson has often been compared to Sidney Rice and Boyce has reminded some scouts of Emmanuel Sanders. What did these guys do in their rookie years?

Sidney Rice had 31 catches for 396 yds and 4 TDs while Sanders had 28 catches for 376 yds and 2 TDs. Not really eye popping numbers, but about standard for NFL rookie WRs. This is about where we should set our expectations for Boyce and Dobson if they aren't starting most games. However this doesn't mean they can't exceed expectations. There have been rookie wideouts picked past the 1st round that have made quite the impact on their team (however they were usually starting 10+ and getting tons of playing time). I looked at the past 4 drafts too see what rookie picked in the 2nd-4th round made an impact. Here are the best 3 of each draft.

2012: Josh Gordon (2nd) TY Hilton (3rd) Chris Givens (4th)

Jordon: 50 catches 805 yds 16.1 Y/R 5 TDs

Hilton: 50 catches 861 17.2 Y/R 7 TDs

Givens: 42 catches 698 16.6 Y/R 3 TDs

2011: Titus Young (2nd) Torrey Smith (2nd) Greg Little( 2nd)

Youg: 48 catches 607 yds 12.6 Y/R 6 TDs

Smith: 50 catches 841 yds 16.8 Y/R 7 TDs

Little: 61 catches 709 yds 11.6 Y/R 2 TDs

2010: Brandon LaFell (3rd) Mike Williams (4th) Jacoby Ford (4th)

LaFell: 38 catches 468 yds 12.3 Y/R 1 TD

Williams: 65 catches 964 yds 14.8 Y/R 11 TDs

Ford: 25 catches 470 yds 18.8 Y/R 2 TDs

2009: Mohamed Massaquoi (2nd) Mike Wallace (3rd) Brian Hartline (4th)

Massaquoi: 34 catches 624 yds 18.4 3 Y/R TDs

Wallace: 39 catches 756 yds 19.4 Y/R 6 TDs

Hartline: 31 catches 506 yds 16.3 Y/R 3 TDs

So at best this is what either Boyce or Dobson can give to the pats in 2013 (it's highly unlikely BOTH of them put up numbers like this this year). So here is my projection for them in 2013.

Aaron Dobson: 44 catches 565 yds 5 TDs

Josh Boyce: 25 catches 377 yds 3 TDs

Total: 69 catches 942 yds 8 TDs.

This is where I'm setting my expectations for the two of them. If they can reach around this number this would be great rookie production for the pats.

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