Are Patriots’ offensive spacing issues on the receivers or the scheme?

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…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/patriots-offensive-spacing-issues-receivers-195810054.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2024-10-31 20:04:30

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