Meh I ain't even mad about Wes. Sure he was nice but he showed last season and the season before that he wasn't good in the clutch which is the most important part. Amendola should be an apt replacement if he can last the season and Julian Edelman is poised for a break-out, if only he can last the season as well rofl. I'm more butthurt about Aaron Hernandez than welker but owell. I guess we'll be ok having only just the best tight end instead of the best tight end and one of the (if not the) best flex tight ends. With ol' Tommy B at the helm though we should do fine on offense. Plus we've got god on our side now with Tebow.
tl;dr offense will be worse but will still likely be top 5 offense and defense has improved on last year, likely making it to top 10 defense (second half of last season we were 16th or 11th? can't remember).
Anywho if you look at the losses that the patriots have had in the playoffs it always comes down to a last minute drive by the opponents that our defense that relies on big plays can't stop. I'd say we are in a better state now than last year overall (well we will be by the second half of the year when our rookie WRs start gelling anywho)