“That means a new guy coming in has to learn – to a degree – 12, 13 years of stuff instead of a guy that’s coming in and learning the system from scratch with a new coach and that type of thing," Belichick said.
FOXBOURGH – It got the best of P.K. Sam and Bethel Johnson. Brandon Tate withered under its weight and flipped Chad Jackson the bird before pointing him toward the door.
The New England Patriots’ offense has been notoriously difficult on rookie receivers over the years. Since David Givens and Deion Branch became the first pair of players drafted for the position by Bill Belichick in 2002, only a scant few have been able to successfully integrate themselves into the complex system.
There’s a reason for that: The offense is incredibly complex. Yes, that’s an incredibly simple answer, but it’s also the only one that is true.
When it was first assembled all those years ago, the offensive playbook was a little more basic and easier to digest, which gave Branch and Givens a fighting chance. The version of the playbook that Aaron Dobson and Josh Boyce will be handed this week is several pages thicker and contains more than a dozen years of revisions.
In other words, that old manuscript has been polished into a masterpiece.
“It evolves a bit every year, maybe gets modified a little bit, but it’s grown. It’s certainly – it has a lot more breadth to it than it did in 2000, 2001, 2002,” Belichick said. “That means a new guy coming in has to learn – to a degree – 12, 13 years of stuff instead of a guy that’s coming in and learning the system from scratch with a new coach and that type of thing.”
After watching so many players come in and fail to grasp the offense, Belichick became aware of the danger of being too complex. Plays were clipped. Other things were streamlined and simplified. But even with that little bit of flex, the bar for entry remains high.
So Belichick's biggest challenge each April isn't locating workout freaks or guys who look great on film. It's finding players who can check off both of that box and display the mental capacity to grasp the playbook.
He found the right pair of running backs and tight ends for the job. Now he’s hoping he’s done the same at wide receiver with Boyce and Dobson.
"You just can't keep adding, adding, adding. At some point, you have to trim the fat," Belichick said. "We've turned over the tight end position, we've turned over the running back position and we've turned over a number of the positions on the offensive line. Now we're doing it at receiver.
"I think it's a little bit of you have to figure it out as you go. You have a plan, you try to do it a certain way, but as you get into it, you see how it's going and what certain players are able to do or how quickly they're able to adapt. You modify your teaching."
Both Dobson and Boyce have been lauded for their intelligence throughout the predraft process, so learning the offense should be an achievable task.
But one thing will always remain true: This offense doesn’t discriminate when it comes time to raise that finger toward a player.
