Are Patriots’ offensive spacing issues on the receivers or the scheme? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New England Patriots’ wide receivers have underperformed in 2024, to put it mildly. But should they shoulder all of the blame for their struggles, or are they not being set up for success by offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt?
On the latest episode of the Next Pats Podcast, Patriots Insider Phil Perry asked Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner about instances where receivers have poor spacing on their routes and make it easier for defenses to cover them — which has happened several times with Patriots pass-catchers this season — and whether that’s on the receivers themselves or the coordinator designing the plays.
While Warner suggested it could be a mix of both depending on the situation, he leaned toward giving the OC the benefit of the doubt.
“A lot of times when I see that, just my natural inkling is, ‘OK, no coordinator would design it that way,'” Warner told Perry. “Like, no coordinator would think that was a good idea, because we’re putting a checkdown right underneath another route and we’re making it easy on the defense or really hard on our quarterback.”
On a new Patriots Talk Podcast with Tom E. Curran, Perry elaborated on that point by bringing up a specific example from New England’s Week 7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
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“In (Warner’s) mind, as he said, there’s no way an offensive coordinator would draw it up that way, right? And I tend to agree with him,” Perry said. “I mean, Alex Van Pelt’s not new to the league.
“The play that sticks out in my mind is the throw (against) Jacksonville where it’s a bootleg roll-out and Ja’Lynn Polk ends up dropping the pass — but Hunter Henry is like six inches behind him. There’s no way that’s the way that Alex Van Pelt would draw that up, in my opinion.
“I believe he was asked about that route specifically a few days later in his Thursday press conference, and he didn’t want to throw anybody under the bus, so he didn’t make it sound as though anybody did anything wrong. But my guess is it’s the players not the coach in this situation.”
The Patriots have a relatively inexperienced group of receivers; outside of Kendrick Bourne and K.J. Osborn, no wideout has more than three years of NFL experience. Rookies Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker both have struggled with inconsistency and attention to detail, while even talented second-year receiver DeMario Douglas has had similar issues.
We can’t know for sure if New England’s receivers are just struggling to execute Van Pelt’s play-calls or if there are changes Van Pelt can make to his schemes. But inexperience does appear to be a factor in a Patriots receiver room whose leading pass-catcher (Douglas) has just 271 yards through eight games.
Also in this episode:
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What are the chances Drake Maye plays on Sunday?
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How similar are the Patriots and Titans?
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Should the Patriots be dealing players at the deadline?
