New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is accustomed to offensive competency, particularly at this time of year. The Patriots have made a habit of playing dead in the beginning of the year. They started 2-2 in 2014, 2017 and 2018 before appearing in the Super Bowl. During those seasons, Brady and the offense looked pretty bad at the outset — until they looked like one of the most efficient and unstoppable forces in the league.
But this year has been starkly different. The Patriots haven’t flipped the switch. If anything, they’ve looked worse over the last few weeks — and it’s the time of year which Brady and Bill Belichick say is most important. Maybe the running game is improving, but New England’s passing game has been predictable. They want to feed Julian Edelman and James White. Brady is far less comfortable with his other options. That’s why the Houston Texans’ game plan on Sunday night looked so impressive (even if it was an obvious one). Texans defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel doubled Edelman and put a cornerback on White. That made life difficult for Brady.
He was doing his best to elevate the play of his supporting cast. And it wasn’t working. He tried sideline motivation. He tried adjustments at the line of scrimmage. He tried trusting them in contested situations. But it wasn’t working for the first time in a long time. All of Brady’s deep targets to Phillip Dorsett fell incomplete on Sunday, and the quarterback’s lone target to N’Keal Harry resulted in an interception. So Brady is, in essence, testing them. But they’re failing those tests.
“Guys are trying. I have no problem — I love playing with Phillip Dorsett. I love playing with N’Keal,” Brady told WEEI sports radio on Monday morning. “N’Keal is working his tail off. He hasn’t had a lot of opportunities out there and he’s learning as he’s going. To expect someone to go out in their third game of the year and be perfect, I think that is unrealistic for anyone. I love what N’Keal is bringing. We’re gaining confidence every week.”
It’s not showing. In fact, Harry didn’t sound sure of anything after Sunday’s game. He said he didn’t notice his playtime decrease or his targets disappear after the interception. And he wasn’t totally sure what went wrong on that turnover.
“I mean, I guess I could have just used my body more a little bit,” Harry told reporters after the game. “I haven’t watched it on film yet. I’ve got to see it first.”
This is the time of year when the Patriots offense should begin to click. But it hasn’t. Brady is 42 years old with limitations, and beyond Edelman and White, Brady’s pass-catchers are a group of average veterans (WRs Dorsett, Mohamed Sanu and TEs Matt LaCosse and Ben Watson) mixed with underdeveloped youngsters (WRs N’Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers and TE Ryan Izzo).
Brady certainly hasn’t made his career upon developing young receivers — that has long been a weak point for New England, which hasn’t made much of its draft selections at the position (See: Aaron Dobson, Josh Boyce, Taylor Price and Chad Jackson). But Brady has done a nice job getting the most out of veterans like Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan. That hasn’t quite been the case for Dorsett, Sanu, LaCosse or Watson — or even Josh Gordon, who the Patriots cut earlier this offseason.
This season, Brady’s work in elevating the play of those around him has been unsatisfactory. Part of that comes with the offense’s identity. New England wants to defer to their defense and special teams, which Brady has admitted are the strengths of the team. The problem is that when the Patriots must turn to the offense — as they did when they fell into a hole against Houston — they look as unprepared as they did on Sunday.
There’s definitely reason to believe the Patriots can get more out of their offense and that Brady can still find ways to elevate their play. It’s just that they’re running out of time. They have just four games remaining in the regular season, including matchups against the Kansas City Chiefs (8-4) and the Buffalo Bills (9-3). Brady can get Sanu back into the fold as he recovers from an ankle issue. The 42-year-old can build a rapport with LaCosse as he gets healthy from his long list of injuries. And the quarterback can continue to bring along Meyers and Harry (but Meyers, in particular) to make them a bigger part of the offense. That’s what we’ve come to expect over the last 15 years of watching Brady and Belichick. Somehow, they get better, because they have been the most resourceful tandem in the NFL for two decades.
But after watching this Patriots team for 13 weeks, there’s room to wonder whether New England has the requisite offensive talent to hang with the AFC’s best teams. The cast of pass-catchers needs Brady to make them look better than they are. And he has so far looked incapable of doing that.
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