NFL insider: Teams ‘not threatened’ by Patriots offense in 2021
According to NBC Sports Boston's Phil Perry, opposing teams viewed the Patriots' offense as "easy to plan for" last season.
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The Patriots certainly had more issues at the end of the 2021 season than their offense alone. But make no mistake: their offense wasn’t exactly lighting things up as New England skidded toward a frustrating finish to last year’s campaign.
NBC Sports Boston Patriots insider Phil Perry gave some insight into why that might have been based on conversations he had with other teams at the NFL Combine about New England and its future with Mac Jones.
The gist: opposing defenses “were not threatened” by the Patriots.
“They were a very easy offense — easy offense, they were a top-10 offense in terms of points scored, so they were efficient — but they were a relatively easy offense to defend,” relayed Perry on the Patriots Talk Podcast. “You knew they were gonna run the ball, you knew they were gonna throw short. You knew typically when they were at their best, they’re going to throw over the middle.
“They’re easy to plan for. There’s nobody on their offense who you say, ‘We’ve got to make sure we’ve got a safety over the top on this guy.’”
Calling an offense that finished sixth in points per game and 10th in estimated points added per play (EPA/play) easy seems like a wild statement for opponents to make about the Patriots.
And yet, the numbers are what they are. New England’s offense slipped from 10th in EPA/play from Weeks 1-14 to 13th when factoring in their losses to Indianapolis and Buffalo in Weeks 15 and 16. Then, when you take away New England’s Week 17 demolition of the Jaguars, the Patriots were 15th in EPA/play — squarely league-average — in their last two games in Week 18 and on wild-card weekend.
Teams certainly seemed to know on film how to counter Jones’s laser-like focus on Jakobi Meyers in the slot, and the young quarterback wasn’t able to punish defenses down the field even when they dared him to.
Some of that, though, the Patriots believe they can solve with an upgrade at wide receiver. Bill Belichick and his staff have done an “excessive” amount of study on receivers like Dallas’ Amari Cooper (should he be released) and free-agent Allen Robinson, as well as inquiring about Carolina’s Robby Anderson via trade.
“Is Robby Anderson that guy [that worries other defenses]? He’s more that guy than Nelson Agholor,” Perry added. “He’s not Ja’Marr Chase. He’s not A.J. Brown. He’s not what I think somebody like [Ohio State’s] Chris Olave might be…but he’s better. And as long as you’re improving offensively, that’s a move most fans can get behind.”
Whether Olave is available at the Patriots’ No. 21 pick or not, the Patriots will have plenty of chances to upgrade with young receiver talent in a deep wide receiver draft class, which could see Day 1 contributors fall into the second and third rounds. Alabama’s John Metchie, assuming his recovery from an ACL injury is going as well as expected, might be a tremendous value at pick No. 54.
One way or another, the Patriots and Jones have to make their offense more challenging to defend in 2022. If not, they’re likely not going anywhere meaningful in the AFC for a while.
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