Though the Patriots are 1-0, Tom Brady is definitely not a happy man right now. Sure, he’s still a three-time Super Bowl champion, is/will forever be beloved in the New England area, is still happily married to Gisele, and pulls off UGG ad campaigns without issue. Yet the guys who will be catching passes from him this season, despite helping the Patriots emerge victorious in week one, appear to be kind of a mess. And that’s putting it nicely.

In fact, there have been so many losses to the receiving corps that I’ve started measuring the level of Brady anger on your standard 1-10 scale. NOTE: I very much doubt this will keep him (and the Patriots) from winning a bunch of games this year, but it’s fun to monitor his frustration nonetheless.

The Patriots ditched Randy Moss a few seasons ago, only to never replace him. Brady-anger notched a modest 3 at that point. Miffed, but not yet upset really:

Fast-forward a few years to the end of last season, when there were fundamental changes in the receiving corps. Wes Welker, Deion Branch and Brandon Lloyd are now gone, Aaron Hernandez was revealed to (allegedly/probably) be a psychotic killer and is obviously no longer with the team, and Rob Gronkowski is still hurt. The options instantly got pretty thin.

The Brady-anger-level reached a 6 right around then, especially when you consider that Welker left for a comparatively small deal in Denver of all places:

For the rest of the offseason, New England made only minor additions, other than adding injury-prone receiver Danny Amendola. Brady-anger reaches an 8:

And now we reach this week. After laboring to defeat an injury-depleted Bills secondary, news has been filtering out that there will be further losses.

Amendola, signed to replace Welker (and the player who looked most vital to the Patriots’ new-look offense against Buffalo) will apparently miss tomorrow night’s game against the Jets due to a groin injury. And running back Shane Vereen, who has emerged as a very viable pass-catcher out of the backfield, will miss several weeks due to a broken bone in his wrist.

Here’s Brady reacting to Amendola and Vereen out as the anger reaches a solid 9:

Poor Tom indeed. The guy just wants one reliable target. Just one. He doesn’t need a lot, as New England fans know.

So that leaves some combination of rookies, and more rookies after those initial rookies. Plus Julian Edelman, who actually proved to be a good weapon in the season opener. Here’s what the starting lineup looks like if (and again, we don’t know this for sure) Amendola is out:

Starting running back: Steven “Doghouse” Ridley (with LaGarrette Blount and Brandon Bolden as backups. Even Leon Washington is hurt.)

Starting tight end: Michael Hoomanawanui and his coconut water  (because Zach Sudfeld will most likely be out with a hamstring injury).

Starting wide receivers: Kenbrell Thompkins, Julian Edelman (Josh Boyce as a third stringer). Injuries to  Amendola and Aaron Dobson further limit options that, keep in mind, were already pretty limited.

Looks pretty bleak, or at the very least, it’s a unit totally devoid of experience with the exception of Edelman. And even then, if Julian Edelman is the old man of your receiving corps, that might be a problem.

Basically, this sums up the current state of the Patriots receivers:

The bottom line: I’m seriously starting to think the Patriots front office is punking Tom Brady. Does he even recognize people in the locker room these days?

“Hey, let’s see how many of his trustworthy guys we can take away before he flips out Reggie Dunlop-style.” (And yes I understand the front-office can’t control injuries, I’m making a joke people. Then again, they did sign Danny Amendola knowing fully what his history has been.)

Or, they might just be trying to keep things interesting for a quarterback and a franchise that has had the AFC East in a vice-grip over the last decade. Either way, I’m pretty sure Brady won’t be sleep-walking through another regular season. This one will be the most interesting one for him in years.

I’ll put it this way: Brady-anger might go up to this level if Edelman even thinks about landing on the injury report:

But just you wait until Rob Gronkowski officially makes his return (possibly as early as week 3). It will be enough to make Tom break out the moves we-all-know-and-try-to-erase-from-memory:

And if he ever gets to play with Gronk, Amdendola, and Shane Vereen, then this face might make a come back:

I think we can all agree: if he wins anything this year, doesn’t that make him the undisputed MVP?

Image via Sports Grid