Brian Tyms using experience with Patriots to ‘pay attention to detail’

Globe Staff/Jonathan Wiggs

By Erik Frenz

June 17, 2015

2 minutes to read

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FOXBOROUGH — Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s favorite mantra is “do your job.’’

When it comes to playing wide receiver in the Patriots’ offense, that may need to be modified to “do your job while knowing the jobs of the other players around you, how their jobs affect your job, and how the job of the defense might alter your job.’’

The phrase is a bit more complicated, and it still may not even begin to describe what is being asked of these players.

Wide receiver Brian Tyms was thrown into the fire a bit last year, joining a new team with a new system.

“Last year, when I came in, I was just catching on as I went,’’ Tyms said after practice on Wednesday. “Now, I actually know the stuff, so you start actually paying attention to more detail, more things that have to do with route depth, and certain situations. It’s big.’’

Last year, Tyms helped explain what makes the Patriots offense so difficult for wide receivers. Part of the difficulty, he noted, is that routes change based on coverages, and that may happen on the fly depending on what the defense does during the play.

There’s no room for a receiver to be one-dimensional in the Patriots offense, which helps explain why Tyms has been focusing on rounding out his game this offseason.

“I can’t really pinpoint anything, but I’m just trying to get better at everything,’’ he said. “I want to be looked at as a really good player, and the really good players can do everything well, so I’m trying to do everything well. Whether it’s blocking, route-running, short routes, long routes, everything. Even special teams.’’

At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Tyms can be best described as a boundary receiver. Between Tyms, Aaron Dobson, and Brandon LaFell, the Patriots have more of those kinds of receivers than they’ve had at their disposal in a long time.

The competition remains thick at the wide receiver position, which could help explain why Tyms is focused on improving on special teams — he’s been lined up as a gunner in practice with Matthew Slater absent.

“We all go at each other,’’ Tyms said. “We all hold each other to a really high standard, we help each other out, and we feel as though everybody can make a play, so we really don’t care who gets the ball, as long as you get it and you make something happen with it.’’