How do the Patriots handle the return of Aaron Hernandez?

Let’s go back to week 1 when Rob Gronkowski, Brandon Lloyd, and Aaron Hernandez were the starting receivers for the Patriots vs the Titans. Wes Welker saw only part-time action and collected 3 catches for 14 yards. The Patriots won 34-13, but the next week everyone was asking what happened to Wes Welker? Was he sitting because of his summer antics during his contract dispute? Was he sitting because the Patriots were trying to trade him? Or was it because he had simply been replaced in the Patriots’ offense by up-and-coming Aaron Hernandez? As I correctly predicted, it was the latter reason. Then ironically on the first series of week 2 against the Cardinals Hernandez went down with what was thought to be a serious ankle injury (apparently it wasn’t as bad as they thought since he only missed 3 weeks instead of the predicted 6-8 weeks). Since that injury all Wes Welker has done is catch 35 passes for 470 yards. Just to clarify that’s an average of about 9 catches a game for 118 yards! Unbelievable statistics for a regular NFL wide out but almost expected numbers for Welker since he has excelled so much in the past that our expectations are through the roof for him. None the less he has been straight awesome the past 4 weeks and at times has helped carry the Patriots offense. He has been Brady’s main target and has been, I my opinion, the Patriots MVP so far this season.

Now were looking ahead to week 6 versus the Seahawks and the anticipated return of Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez practiced a little bit last week but was held out of the Sunday’s game so that he would be almost back to full strength for this week’s game. How do the Patriots handle this situation? They obviously cannot bench Welker again after he has put up such monster numbers the past few weeks. But they can’t bench Hernandez either. I mean they just gave him a 5 year $40 mil contract this off-season and he and Gronkowski, who also signed a huge contract this summer, are obviously the cornerstones of this franchise so I don’t think either of them will see their playing time cut short.

If I were to make a prediction, I would say Welker keeps his regular job as slot receiver and the ease Hernandez back into things until he really is 100%. At that point I would think they both would be on the field together and a player like Julian Edelman (currently injured), who was playing over Welker in week 1, would lose his spot. They cannot afford to not play either guy. These two guys are too talented and productive to make either one of them suffer. It appeared in week 1 and part of week 2 that the Patriots’ offense was built for only one of them to be on the field at the same time, but at this point I think Josh McDaniels needs to head back to the drawing board and come up with a game plan that utilizes both players. There’s no doubt this is a tricky situation. The Patriots running attack is currently ranked 3^rd in the NFL and both Ridley and Bolden are producing at an unbelievable pace. McDaniels now needs to work his magic and come up with a plan that will continue to stick to the run game, but also have options for both Welker and Hernandez as well as Gronkowski and Lloyd. That’s a tough problem to have huh? Having too many great players on the same offense is a great problem to have but in the Patriots case, they need to find a way so everyone can be utilized properly.