With Wes Welker on the move, the Patriots offense will look different in 2013 than it has the previous six seasons. While there’s a lot of time left in the overall team-building process, and with the understand they are not going to radically change what they do, here’s a look at five members of the New England offense who will be under scrutiny as it goes forward without Welker.

Danny Amendola: It’s unfair to ask anyone to try and replicate Welker’s production, but Amendola will likely be the one in the spotlight. The slot receiver has struggled with a variety of health issues the last two seasons, including heel, foot and clavicle injuries, which have limited him to 12 games in that stretch. But when he’s been healthy, he’s been very good, including an 85-catch season in 2010. He will need some time to get up to speed in the system, but his experience with Josh McDaniels will certainly work to his advantage. His two biggest challenges will be staying healthy and winning the trust of the quarterback -- it took Welker and Brady years and thousands of hours to develop the sort of chemistry that led to a record-breaking run in New England for the receiver. If Amendola is smart, he will make the pilgrimage to California his offseason, where Brady has spent the last several offseasons throwing with Welker. (Aaron Hernandez is scheduled to be a part of that group this year.) That would be a good start.

(One more thing: As we wrote here when we previewed the possibility of Amendola as a Patriot, if you look at the pre-Patriots stretch of Welker’s career, he didn’t turn into WES WEKER, PRIME TARGET until the age of 25, when he caught 67 passes for 687 yards for a Dolphins’ team that finished 6-10. He then took that to the next level when he joined the Patriots — at the age of 26, he caught 112 passes. For comparisons sake, Amendola had his breakout year with the Rams at the age of 25 when he caught 85 passes for 689 yards. That team ended the year 7-9. Health and durability aside -- and that remains a HUGE question -- if there’s one guy out there who appears poised to continue on the same sort of career path, it’s Amendola.)

Aaron Hernandez: While things could change, the onus now really falls on the tight ends in the passing game, particularly Hernandez. The versatile offensive chess piece has been moved all over the field in his three seasons with New England, and has flourished in that role. (If the Patriots hadn’t made a move on Amendola, I’d think he’d spent almost the entire 2013 season in the slot.) With the two tight ends, it’s all part of the continued evolution of the New England offense, one that has moved from the wide receivers to the tight ends: targets for the New England tight ends went from 43 catches on 60 targets in 2009 to 169 catches on 237 targets in 2011. In that same period, targets for receivers went from 273 catches on 423 targets (2009) to 196 catches on 309 targets in 2011. (We won’t include the 2012 season because serious injuries to both limited their work.)

Rob Gronkowski: The Patriots spent the better part of the offseason last year redesigning their offense around the two young tight ends, and when they went down for the bulk of the season, they were forced to change things up. Now, it’s their show, at least until Amendola achieves some level of comfort in the New England offense. If Gronkowski bounced back and stays healthy for the duration of the 2013 season -- and presumably puts up another 90-catch season like he did in 2011 as a result -- everyone will forget Welker. It’s important to remember that Gronkowski fundamentally is a different offensive presence than either Amendola or Hernandez, and so the responsibilities are different. But from a pure production standpoint, look for a healthy Gronkowski to see an increase in overall targets without Welker in the offense.

Stevan Ridley: The running back will now be counted on to play an even larger role in the New England offense than he did last season, when he came within 10 carries of becoming the first back to finish with at least 300 carries for the Patriots since Corey Dillon in 2004. It’s hard to imaging New England running the ball than it did in 2012 -- the Patriots ran the ball 523 times during the 2012 regular season, the highest total for a Patriots team since the 2004 team ran the 524 times over the course of the regular season. But more offensive balance could be a key for the New England offense going forward, and that could come with increased touches for Ridley.

Josh McDaniels: This is a colossal gamble on the part of the New England braintrust, which is essentially trading in Welker for a younger model. Based on his experience with him in St. Louis, you have to believe that McDaniels saw enough in Amendola to believe that the 27-year-old could be Welker, version 2.0, right down to his special teams value. If this works, it will go down as another example of New England’s ability to read the market and understand the ebbs and flows of free agency and when to give up on a player. If it fails -- and Welker experiences any level of success in Denver -- it will be a move that could end up haunting the Patriots and their offense for many years to come.