Efficiency hasn’t been Damiere Byrd’s game in 2020.
The New England Patriots receiver has gotten the third most offensive snaps on the team with 312 (93%). And yet he’s barely showing up in the stat sheet, with 17 catches for 217 yards. That would be a paltry 694 receiving yards on the season. In Week 1, he got the most snaps among receivers, just like he gets every week, and yet he failed to get a target, let alone a catch. For a team that prides itself upon making the most of players and highlighting a players strengths, New England been OK putting Byrd on the field as a placeholder, with N’Keal Harry getting the second-most snaps and Julian Edelman getting the third most.
“Damiere’s a smart kid that has good route-running ability and has done a good job picking up our offense. He’s been productive,” Bill Belichick said on Wednesday.
That’s weird, because as we just mentioned, Byrd has not been productive. His grade for 2020 is 59.3 on Pro Football Focus, a digital scouting service. (That’s pretty darn bad.) Harry got a 64.5 and Edelman got a 70. (Not great either.)
Edelman’s lack of snaps — and production (300 receiving yards, which are boosted enormously by his 179 yards against the Seahawks) — seems to be a product of the knee injury that has limited him in every practice during the 2020 regular season. Harry’s lack of snaps probably stems from the work he needs to do on “fundamentals, awareness and anticipation,” per Belichick. In other words, he occasionally doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing on the field.
All the receivers might have better production if it wasn’t for poor quarterback play for the last three games. Cam Newton has sandwiched Brian Hoyer’s failed start against the Chiefs with a pair of duds against the Raiders and the Broncos. Though the quarterbacks have been missing open receivers for weeks, Belichick isn’t going to praise Byrd for the catches he could have had.
“I don’t know. It is what it is. I mean, I’m not going to try to create something that’s not there. So, whatever it is, it is,” Belichick said.
[vertical-gallery id=96664]