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Winslow Townson/Associated Press

Receivers: Julian Edelman, Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell, Danny Amendola, Andrew Hawkins, Matthew Slater, Devin Street, Devin Lucien

Tight Ends: Rob Gronkowski, Dwayne Allen, James O’Shaughnessy, Matt Lengel

We conclude our receiver corps rankings with one simple statement: The rich just got richer.

With two offseason moves, the defending Super Bowl champs now have a group of targets as deep as any in the Tom Brady era—certainly the equivalent of the 2012 corps, when Wes Welker put up 1,354 yards, Brandon Lloyd had a 911-yard season and third-year tight end Rob Gronkowski scored 11 touchdowns in just 11 games.

In 2017, the Pats traded their first-round pick for the services of former Saints receiver Brandin Cooks, who had 1,100-yard seasons in each of the last two years, and team owner Robert Kraft has compared Cooks’ potential impact to that of Randy Moss in his prime. There’s a bit of projection involved in that statement, but Cooks has shown demon deep speed—last season, only DeSean Jackson had more yards on passes of at least 20 yards in the air than Cooks’ 544. Moreover, Cooks isn’t just a speedster—he has an estimable understanding of route concepts, and the transition to New England’s playbook, heavy on option routes, shouldn’t be a problem.

Cooks’ ability to create separation on long passes is especially important to this offense—last season, the Patriots completed 27 passes of 20-plus yards in the air to Cooks’ 11, and Chris Hogan had 16 of those passes for the Patriots. The former Bills speedster thrived in his new environs, gaining a career-high 680 receiving yards and leading the NFL with 17.9 yards per catch. Having Cooks and Hogan on the field at the same time will be worrisome for any deep safety.

The other offseason move that makes a big difference is the acquisition of former Colts tight end Dwayne Allen, who will be Rob Gronkowski’s new best buddy. Last year, the Pats tried to team Gronk and Martellus Bennett together in their two-tight-end packages, but it didn’t work as expected due to injury. Allen never put up huge numbers in the Colts offense, but that doesn’t mean he can’t. Allen is a fine blocker and has the potential to be another deep threat—he caught three passes of 20-plus yards in the air in 2016, and all three were for touchdowns.

All these deep targets allow the Pats to do with Julian Edelman what he’s best at—run any route possible from anywhere in the formation, aligning himself perfectly with the three-dimensional passing game in Tom Brady’s head. Add in the depth in this rotation with proven role players like Danny Amendola and Matthew Slater, and factor in the receptions that can come out of the running game (remember the 14 receptions James White had in Super Bowl LI), and it will be tremendously exciting to see how this coaching staff deploys all this talent against enemy defenses.

Tom Brady has had some great receiver groups, but this just may be his best yet.