ESPN Ranks Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski Second Best ‘Triplet’

A few days ago Bill Barnwell of ESPN ranked the 32 best offensive ‘triplets’ in the NFL, and New England’s top trio of Brady, Edelman and Gronkowski checked in at number two.

Here is what he had to say:

"What’s remarkable about New England’s star trio, in one way, is how unwanted these players were. Brady famously was a sixth-round pick. Gronkowski was a second-rounder. Edelman was a seventh-rounder and a college quarterback; when he hit free agency for the first time in 2013, the Giants were the only team to even bring him in for a meeting, let alone make him an offer. (If you prefer, you can swap out Edelman for Dion Lewis, who was out of professional football for the vast majority of 2014.) Of course, now, it’s too late for the opposition. Remember the final drive of that playoff game against the Broncos last year where everybody in the stadium knew Brady was going to go to Gronkowski on fourth down and it still worked? And then it worked on the next fourth down too?"

The only thing I disagree with, is him saying you could switch in Dion Lewis for Edelman. I absolutely love Lewis, and him being gone last year really hurt this offense, but Edelman is without a doubt the better player. He is a legit number one receiver in this league, and easily a top 10 wideout, and in my opinion even better than that.

Barnwell has the Steelers trio of Big Ben, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown as the only triplet above the Pats guys, which is a good choice. I obviously can’t say the Pats guys MUST be above a group as talented as that, but I honestly think they are at least 1a and 1b.

Brown versus Gronk should be a push, as is Bell versus Edelman, simply because receivers are more valuable in today’s NFL than running backs. Then clearly Brady is the superior quarterback to Big Ben, so the Pats win.

I’m biased, I know. I have no problem with Pittsburgh being one and New England being two, but that is just my honest opinion.