FanPost

Has there ever been a worse universally beloved Patriots player than Danny Amendola?

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Danny Amendola has been nothing short of a huge disappointment as a New England Patriot. From the second he signed his 5 year 28.5 million dollar deal, he's been completely underwhelming. His original deal that he signed called for just 10 million dollars guaranteed, which was reasonable for a pure slot WR that had many injury concerns and had never topped 700 yards in St. Louis. And now, in 2017, he has somehow been compensated 17,392,600 by the Patriots. For an organization that prides themselves on accountability, production, availability and the willingness to cut bait on underachieving veterans for younger, less heralded rookies, how in the world has Amendola survived the entirety of his 5 year deal with the Patriots?

Common misconceptions and fallacies when addressing Amendola's play

For Patriots fans it seems like it's a cardinal sin to address just how poor of a player Danny Amendola has been for the last 5 years. I'm going to go through the common rebuttals 1 by 1 and refute these claims as nothing more than hometown bias.

"Amendola is clutch and comes up big on 3rd downs"

False! Amendola's 3rd down statistics have been just barely above average throughout his Patriots career.

Season

3rd down completions and targets

3rd down completion percentage

Patriots team 3rd down completion percentage

Change

First down percentage

Patriots first down percentage when passing the ball

Change

2013

16/24

66.7

59.6

62.5

40.3

2014

11/20

55.0

60.9

35.0

45.0

2015

21/31

67.7

63.3

41.9

42.9

2016

15/22

68.8

65.6

54.5

49.4

Total

63/97

64.9

62.4

+2.5%

48.5

44.4

+4.1%


Because of the large sample size, neither of these changes are statistically significant. In fact, if you remove the 1st game of Amendola's Patriots career where he went 8/9 on 3rd downs before tearing his groin and starting down the spiral of injuries, both changes become less than 0.1%, with Amendola's 3rd down completion percentage becoming 62.5% and his first down percentage becoming 44.3%.

Amendola has had a reputation of being a savior on 3rd downs. In reality, he's been extremely average.

"Amendola shows up in the playoffs"

False! Amendola's per 16 games averages in NE over the last 4 years has been 50/511/3. In the playoffs, Amendola has a 31/361/4 line, which per 16 games is 43/501/5 line. A couple more touchdowns, fewer catches and fewer yards. Also a completion percentage in the playoffs that is more than 5% worse than the regular season. Big game Danny is just a mirage.

"Amendola has been such a team player by taking a pay cut the last 3 years"

This is the narrative that irks me the most. Sure, Amendola has amended his contract. Also, the reason he's been forced to do so is that he's been a massively disappointing player. He's never been worth his cap hit any year of his contract even with his discounts.

Cap Hit

# WR by cap hit

# WR by receptions

# WR by yards

% of snaps played

2013

3,575,000

36

41

49

47.8

2014

4,700,000

T-25

93

110

40.3

2015

3,116,666

44

T-30

52

51.6

2016

2,885,416

43

T-97

106

23.8

2017

3,041,668

50

?

?

?

I was on the record saying that Amendola should have been straight up cut after 2015, after the 1st time he took a pay cut. And based on his 2016 season and how much he'll be cost against the cap in 2017 to be the #5 or 6 WR, that would have been a much better choice financially.

"Amendola does some great stuff that doesn't show up on the stat sheet"

He does do some things that don't show up in the typical stat sheet. However, often times they aren't even positive contributions. Amendola has committed 9 penalties in his 4 years here in NE. Tied for 12th most in 2015 and tied for 22nd most in 2014. Those are horrible numbers for a #3 or 4 WR.

Amendola also returns punts and kicks. He's averaged 9.3 yards per punt and 23.7 yards per return. That's slightly above average for punt return yards and below average for kickoffs.

Lastly, there is the fumbles. Amendola has fumbled 5 times in NE out of 263 total touches. Based on the league average of 105 plays per fumble, Amendola's rate is almost twice the average.

What has Amendola contributed to the Patriots?

It's really hard for me to find any positives about Amendola's time in New England.

2013: Amendola is signed as a Welker replacement and is meant to be the #1b option in the passing game to go along with Gronk. He tears his groin week 1 and is hobbled the rest of the year. Because Brady's safety blanket can't get open consistently, he struggles to the worst year of his career outside of his rookie contract days. The guy who is supposed to be the leader of a revamped unit falls behind Julian Edelman, Aaron Dobson, and Kenbrell Thompkins on the depth chart.

2014: This is the only year in NE Amendola plays all 16 games. It's also the worst year of his career, where he finished the year with 200 receiving yards (fewer than 3rd string TE Tim Wright) with a 4.7 million dollar cap hit. Amendola continue to toil behind Edelman and LaFell (haha) on the depth chart.

2015: LaFell starts the year on PUP. Despite having a golden opportunity to claim snaps, both Aaron Dobson and Keyshawn Martin out snap Amendola early in the season. The Pats start the season 10-0 and Edelman goes down game 9 vs the Giants. Amendola is elevated to #1 WR, Stork replaces David Andrews and the Pats finish the season 2-4.

2016: Amendola pretty much exclusively plays #4 WR. This is probably his best year in terms of efficiency, but when you're accounting for 2.9 million against the cap to play less than a quarter of the snaps, that's not much consolation. Amendola fumbles 3 times in 46 touches.

2017: Amendola goes into camp as the clear #5 WR behind Cooks, Edelman, Hogan and Mitchell. And his #5 spot isn't even secure. Both Andrew Hawkins and Austin Carr will have every opportunity to win that spot. Despite this, Amendola costs over 3 million against the cap, with a price tag of a #2 WR.

For me Amendola's tenure in Boston has only seen 2 positives.

  • 1. He directly led to the rise of Julian Edelman.
  • 2. He's the best teammate
In perhaps the only case where Amendola has benefitted his team from being injury prone, Amendola's torn groin against Buffalo in September 2013 pressed Edelman into the big stage for the 1st time. And he never gave it up, becoming one of the best all around wide receivers that Brady has worked with. In an alternative universe where Amendola doesn't get injured, Edelman never breaks out and leaves in free agency after 2014. Scary timeline.

And for all of Amendola's flaws on the field, by all accounts he's the best teammate and really gets along with them on and off the field. To have a vet with those kind of qualities is crucial for every team. Despite the 1000 words I've spilled out eviscerating Amendola as a player, I will root for him to succeed every Sunday.

Conclusion

Earlier this week, I read the article that suggested that Chris Hogan might be cut in favor of Amendola. To me, that is complete lunacy and not even worthy of a debate. The stats, financials and health profiles all suggest that it's not even close, Hogan and Amendola. And despite the fact, I found several comments and opinions that suggested that Amendola was "a great Patriot" and was considered to be a lock. The quote that really stuck out to me was this one:
Like I said, it’s not that I don’t think he’ll make the club, but if forced to decide between Hogan and ‘Dola, I’m going with ’Dola.
That's statement is absolutely bananas to me. To keep a 32 year old, injury prone disappointment over a player who led the league in Yards/reception in his first year with a starting role. Bananas.

In conclusion: praise Amendola's character, personality and camaraderie. But don't praise his play on the field, which has been extremely poor since September 2013.

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