New England traded up to draft wide receiver Tyquan Thornton. In two seasons, Thornton has 27 catches for 281 yards. He has five catches for 34 yards this year in five games. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Another game means another reminder of the Patriots failures at wide receiver.
Over the last two decades, Bill Belichick put together a Hall-of-Fame resume that culminated with six Super Bowl championships.
With 24 Patriots draft classes in the books, we’ve plenty of hits and misses. This season, in particular, has served as a stark reminder of the Patriots misses at the receiver position.
That’s once again the case on Thursday night when the Patriots take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. They are led offensive by receiver George Pickens, who has 44 receptions, 748 yards and three touchdowns.
In 2022, Pickens was drafted 52nd overall – two spots after the Patriots traded up in the round to select receiver Tyquan Thornton. In two seasons, Thornton has 27 catches for 281 yards. He has five catches for 34 yards this year in five games.
The Patriots inability to draft top-tier receiver talent in the first three rounds of the NFL has been one of the franchise’s few consistent issues. This season’s offensive disaster only emphasizes the point.
Pickens is the latest example of several on the Patriots schedule this season.
It started in Week 1 when the Patriots opened up their season against the Philadelphia Eagles. That game was a reminder of the failures of the 2019 Patriots draft class when the team selected receiver N’Keal Harry 32nd overall, ahead A.J. Brown, who leads the Eagles in receiving.
A.J. Brown said he cried when the Patriots didn’t pick him with the 32nd overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Brown is now the Eagles leading receiver, while N’Keal Harry, the player New England selected instead, is on the Vikings’ practice squad. Rich Schultz/Associated Press
Brown was so upset that the Patriots didn’t draft him that he admitted he cried after the team selected Harry. Four years later, that selection went from bad to worse. Brown is a two-time Pro Bowler and All-Pro receiver. He has 81 catches for 1,164 yards with seven touchdowns. This marks his fourth 1,000-yard receiving season. Harry is on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad and doesn’t have 1,000 career receiving yards in five seasons.
In Week 6, Belichick got a different kind of reminder. Instead of a draft error, it was the sight of Jakobi Meyers in Las Vegas. After leading the Patriots in receiving for three seasons, the team opted to sign JuJu Smith-Schuster over Meyers this offseason. That move alone set part of the Patriots passing game back this fall.
In 11 games, Meyers has 52 catches for 591 yards and six touchdowns for the Raiders. His replacement, Smith-Schuster, has 25 catches for 170 yards with one touchdown this season. He has one game where he has over 40 yards receiving. Meyers has seven.
In Week 9, we had another reminder of that 2019 draft when the Patriots took on the Washington Commanders. That team is led by receiver Terry McLaurin, a Pro Bowl receiver who has three 1,000-yard seasons since being drafted in the third round in 2019.
“He’s had a great career,” Belichick said that week. “He’s a very explosive player, threatens all three levels of the defense, very good after the catch. Really, all those guys are. He can make plays down the field, intermediate, catch-and-run plays. He’s quick, plays a lot of different positions. They move him around. But, they get the ball to everybody. It’s not like all the targets go to him, but he’s clearly one of the top players in the league. There’s no doubt about that.”
That 2019 draft was stocked full of good receivers and that list includes Deebo Samuel, D.K. Metcalf, and Diontae Johnson.
The 2022 class isn’t as loaded, but several receivers drafted after Thornton have been more productive. Another one on the Patriots schedule this fall was in Week 10 when the team saw receiver Alec Pierce and the Indianapolis Colts. Pierce was drafted three spots after Thornton in the second round. He has 984 yards over two seasons and 391 receiving yards this fall – more than Thornton’s production dating back to last year.
Although the most recent draft failures of Harry and Thornton stick out, there was also a reminder last weekend when the Los Angeles Chargers came to town. In 2013, the Patriots drafted receiver Aaron Dobson in the second round with pick 59. Seventeen picks later in the third round, pick 76, was Keenan Allen, who has put together a historic career with the Chargers.
A top-flight receiver changes everything for an offense. The Patriots haven’t had a 1,000-yard receiver since Julian Edelman in 2019. They haven’t had a Pro Bowl pass catcher since Rob Gronkowski in 2018.
It became apparent at the end of the Brady era that the Patriots lacked elite offensive weapons. That’s why drafted Harry in the first round, signed Antonio Brown, traded for Josh Gordon, and then traded a second-round pick for Mohamed Sanu. Had they drafted Brown or Samuel instead of Harry, it would’ve helped a lot.
It’s become a problem that can be solved by the draft, which involves an element of luck. As seen this season, drafting a receiver in the first few rounds has yielded low results and big consequences for Belichick’s Patriots team.
With the Patriots offense putting up historically bad numbers, Pickens is just the latest example.
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