Brandon LaFell is in the Super Bowl this week. The former Panthers receiver was with the team for four years before joining the New England Patriots in the off-season. He has had the best season of his career this year in New England with 953 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. Those numbers were good enough to make him the third best receiver on the Patriots, another sign of how pass happy the NFL is these days.
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So how did LaFell do it? Besides alleged deflated footballs? He got an opportunity to change his role on the Patriots offense. When LaFell was in Charlotte, Steve Smith got the call for vertical plays down the field. LaFell never got to do that kind of stuff for the team.
With the Patriots, LaFell is the deep threat on the roster. Smaller guys like Julian Edleman and Danny Amendola share the underneath stuff. LaFell gets to show some his underrated speed. Of course it does not hurt to play with Tom Brady, either.
In LaFell’s discussion with Michael Irvin, he admitted that he was surprised the Panthers made no real attempt to bring him back as part of general manager Dave Gettleman’s house cleaning. I kind of get that. LaFell, like most Panthers fans too I would think, saw the 12-4 team of 2013 as something to build on. He just did not realize the salary cap problems that the Panthers had to deal with.
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LaFell also never made his mark in Carolina. He was known for dropping the ball and not really scaring anybody in opposing secondaries. If he had had a 900 receiving season somewhere in there, the Panthers probably would try to have kept him. However he would never really gotten to do the stuff he is doing in New England. Though Smith is gone, Kelvin Benjamin would have been the new deep threat.
For the Panthers, losing LaFell was just an economic decision. Could the Panthers have used him? Yes. The development and use of Philly Brown proves that. We simply could not afford him. Somehow, I don’t think LaFell is hurting right now.