Over the past few weeks the New England Patriots’ wide receiver room has seen quite a bit of turnover. Between injuries and roster moves, the usage with the group has shifted significantly.
Entering the season, JuJu Smith-Schuster and DeVante Parker appeared to be the team’s clear top two wideouts – especially with both coming off of new contracts in the offseason (Smith-Schuster having signed in free agency, and Parker having signed an extension). Yet Smith-Schuster has now missed two games due to injury after a stark lack in production to start the season, and Parker has seen his snap count decrease three games in a row.
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Taking over those snaps have been Kendrick Bourne, who the team de facto benched for most of last year, and rookie sixth-round pick Demario Douglas, who played a season-high 62 percent of the team’s offensive snaps last week. There’s been some shuffling further down the depth chart as well. Malik Cunningham was initially given a roster spot, which later went to Jalen Reagor. Reagor played nearly half of the team’s offensive snaps as a practice squad elevation last week, and could be in for an increase now that he’s on the active roster.
Noticeably absent from all the roster shuffling is rookie sixth-round pick Kayshon Boutte. After a strong close to the preseason Boutte played 69 percent of the team’s offensive snaps in the season opener without recording a catch. He hasn’t been active for a game since, despite injuries significantly testing the unit’s depth in recent weeks.
On Friday morning, Bill Belichick was asked about Boutte’s lack of usage. In his answer, he pointed to the Patriots’ receiver room as a whole.
“He’s in a very competitive situation. [I] feel like we have a lot of competition at that position,” Belichick replied. “Everybody’s in it. Guys who perform the best play the most. The guys that don’t need to perform better.”
This answer is interesting for two reasons. First, Belichick seems to suggest something than many have pointed to do explain Boutte’s lack of gameday chances – poor performance in practice.
“They’re all competing,” Belichick said, when asked how Boutte has looked behind the scenes in practice. “We have the number of players that, I think are all – again, it’s very competitive.”
The other reason that answer stands out has nothing to do with Boutte, but the players ahead of him on the depth chart. Last week, ‘the guys who perform the best’ did play the most, but will that change as the lesser-performing but higher-paid options get healthy? If what Belichick says here is true, Bourne and Douglas should continue to out-rep Smith-Shuster and Parker moving forward, or at least until the level of performance from one of those players changes.
How has each receiver looked through seven weeks? Here’s a quick roundup.
Note: Players are sorted by current usage rate, entering Week 8.