Wide Receiver Danny Amendola had two touchdowns in the fourth quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars and played a decisive role in Super Bowl LI (4th place). February from 23.45 o’ clock live on DAZN – optionally with German and original US commentary) of his New England Patriots. Contrary to the general perception, however, it is not a flash in the pan, but simply follows an impressive path. SPOX traces this.
“Danny is such a good football player. If you’re looking for’ good football player’ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of him to the right” (Bill Belichick after the AFC Championship game against the Jacksonville Jaguars)
A good football player was definitely needed in the AFC Championship game of the patriots against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Pats were ten points behind at the beginning of the fourth quarter and for a long time did not look like they had another classic comeback in the tank.
In a 3rd and 18 however, the spark jumped over. Tom Brady found Danny Amendola for a 21 yard completion to be an immensely important first down for New England. A short time later, Brady found Amendola again, this time for a touchdown to the 17:20 from the home team’s point of view.
Two series of attacks later, Amendola once again gave the driver with a 20-yard point return – his secondary speciality, if you will – that took the patriots to the 30-yard line. From there, they only needed five plays to the decisive touchdown of the game: a 4-yard TD pass from Brady on – of course – Amendola to win.
This performance (7 REC, 84 YDS, 2 TD) makes even more significant the fact that the patriots had made this comeback without their two probably best offensive weapons Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman. Others also went to their limits, but Amendola outshone them all and did what was necessary.
Even before the season, he did what it took to stay in New England. His cap hit would have cost a whopping $7.8 million. Far too much for an essential part time receiver. And so Amendola restructured his contract once again, foregoing a not inconsiderable portion of his base salary for slightly higher bonuses, thus reducing the cap hit to just over three million dollars.
Amendola has never been more important for the patriots, never so productive, so “clutch” as in these playoffs – at least according to the perception of the rather short-lived national and international press. But if you look closely, of course, it’s not like that: Amendola didn’t shine on the big stage for the first time.
The former Texas Tech player has been playing for New England since 2013. In the spring of that year, his engagement caused quite a stir, as it came about on the day when Patriots Wes Welker, Brady’s favourite play station, had lost to Denver Broncos for so many years.
Depending on who you ask, the story goes that way, that Welker had played poker and one year after his season as a franchise player had asked too much. So the patriots went in a different direction and got Amendola.
It was not only this constellation that made Amendola appear like the designated Welker successor. The small, nimble Welker came into the league from Texas Tech, was not beaten and was bobbing around in the league until the patriots got him from the Dolphins and turned him into a prototype slot receiver.
With the somewhat bigger, but also agile Amendola it was similar, he also came from Texas Tech and didn’t see any country in the league for a long time. The cowboys tried it out, and so did the Eagles. But it was not until 2009, however, that the St. Louis Rams, he found a sporty home.
It took some time for him to become a productive player there as well. Only in his second season he arrived, with 85 receptions (689 yards). But a year later, however, a serious injury stopped him after only one game for the rest of the year. In 2013, he began his patriots’ time directly with a groin injury that severely affected him, even though he missed only four games.
However, his great time did not begin until 2014. In the regular season he still had 27 receptions for a mere 200 yards in 16 games, but his star rose in the playoffs. He scored two touchdowns against Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round, including a 51-yard pass score by receiver colleague Julian Edelman, which was the turning point in New England’s narrow 35-31 win.
In the Super Bowl XLIX, he caught the touchdown pass for 21:24 in the fourth quarter – the Patriots also had to make up a ten-point gap against the Seattle Seahawks. Amendola played a major role in the Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl victory.
The same was true of course in 2016, when Amendola again delivered a strong performance, especially in the Super Bowl against Atlanta. He scored the touchdown for 20:28 just six minutes before the end. At that time it was also the official score at the start of the amazing comeback. Strictly speaking, the performance against the Jaguars this season is just another chapter in the playoff success story of “Danny Playoff”, as Rob Gronkowski recently christened it.
It took a while, but the patriots found a way to make Danny Amendola as worthwhile as possible. After his wounded years in the recent past, the coaches learned to use him in a more targeted way. Since then, he has been playing with “Pitch-Count”, his snaps are managed carefully.
This season he came on the third-most wide-receiver snaps of all patriots – behind Brandin Cooks and Chris Hogan, although the latter had missed a few weeks. Amendola had about 39 offensive snaps per game, which represented almost exactly 49 percent of all offensive snaps in the 15 games in which he played.
This figure alone should underline that Amendola is no substitute for Julian Edelman, who was injured at the knee. Exactly this was the general assumption at the beginning of the season, after Edelman said goodbye with a torn cruciate ligament.
As a rule, Edelman never leaves the field and is not set up as often in the slot as it is sometimes shown. With Amendola, on the other hand, it is almost exclusively – with a few exceptions – the role of the slot receiver. His two touchdowns came from one position in the slot – both times he ran a drag route. At 3rd-and-18 he was also in the slot, but ran a dig route.
But almost everything he did went over the middle. Like Wes Welker, whose legitimate successor he is. But here also only conditionally: Welker was extremely constant and missed six games in his six years with the Patriots – and had only once less than 100 receptions.
Amendola’s figures are not included in the calculation, his operating time is too short. However, his playoff production more than compensates for this. At Welker’s, the drop at the end of Super Bowl XLVI will probably stay in place forever, with the pass that would otherwise have given the patriots the decisive first down to victory. Amendola already has two rings, Welker doesn’t have one.
Next up is Super Bowl LII, the third Super Bowl for Amendola. If it’s according to the law of the series, he will catch another touchdown – so far he has done nothing else in the Super Bowls. But even if he should not succeed this time, he would have reaffirmed his importance for the team anyway.
He is then likely to enter the off-season with corresponding self-confidence, which could become a journey into the unknown for him. After this season Amendola will become a Free Agent and no one knows what to do next. The Patriots don’t have a lot of cap space and with Edelman and Malcolm Mitchell they get back two strong receivers after injuries.
It is quite possible that it could be the end of the trip for the 33-year-old in Foxboro. However, it is also conceivable that a team-friendly contract could be agreed upon again, because success seems to be important to Amendola.
He is a guarantor of that.