For the moment, I’m trying not to think about the Green Bay Packers-Atlanta Falcons beatdown. Did you see the game that followed, the New England Patriots vs. Pittsburgh Steelers? What a show Patriots receiver Chris Hogan put on.
Right after Julio Jones humiliated the Packers with nine catches for 180 yards, Hogan had the exact same stats against Pittsburgh. The backstory on this guy is terrific – and it provides a lesson Ted Thompson might learn from.
Hogan was a lacrosse player at Penn State. After that he spent one season as a football player at Monmouth, where he caught all of 12 passes.
He had aspirations of playing in the NFL and, sure enough, he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the 49ers in 2011. He proceeded to hop around to the Giants and Dolphins. His first playing time in the NFL came in 2013 as a member of the Buffalo Bills. In sporadic appearances he caught 10 passes on the year. He stayed on as a non-starter at Buffalo for two more years.
Then he had the good fortune to join the Patriots. This is a team and a coaching staff not as inclined toward the draft as Green Bay, but they sure know how to “develop.”
But to develop a player successfully, you need to start with someone who has a sufficient amount of potential.
Chris Hogan may have been “raw” (a word that Packers’ coaches have all but copyrighted), but he was 6’2’, 220 pounds, extremely strong (28 bench presses) and did the 40-yard dash in 4.47 (at the Fordham Pro Day). It didn’t take long after joining the Patriots, receiving instruction from that coaching staff, and starting to get thrown to by Tom Brady that Hogan broke out: 36 catches, 680 yards, 4 touchdowns and a sparkling 17.9 yards per catch average in his first year there.
At age 28, his potential, which went unrealized by his first four NFL teams, suddenly turned into actual productivity. If he broke out during the regular season, he has absolutely busted loose in his first two playoff games: 13 catches out of 17 targets, for 275 yards and two touchdowns.
Bill Belichick and the Patriots took a guy who labored in obscurity for five years in the league, and instantly transformed him into a player who’s matching Julio Jones catch for catch. I’m starting to get why the Patriots are a perennial Super Bowl contender.
As I described once before, the Patriots have repeatedly turned cast-off, under-appreciated, and non-pedigreed players into success stories. Hogan follows in the footsteps of receivers Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, and Danny Amendola.
Green Bay likes to tout its “draft and develop” philosophy, but I’ve not seen the Packers have anywhere near the Patriots’ success at developing players into not only steady starters but playoff stars. I’d say this is a big factor in why New England just advanced and Green Bay didn’t.