Pats Pulpit
Following a Monday night victory, the 11-2 New England Patriots are off on their bye week. Players were given Wednesday through Sunday off before work restarts on Monday with a simple message: We’re not satisfied.
Here on Pats Pulpit, our focus this week has been on the Giants win before breaking for the bye. For anything else not covered previously, let’s clean out the notebook. Welcome to this week’s edition of our Sunday Patriots Notes.
Mike Vrabel and the Patritos offensive coaching staff has drilled a simple message to quarterback Drake Maye this season: throw the ball to the open receiver in the progression.
Monday night’s 33-15 victory over the New York Giants was a prime example of such, as Maye completed at least one pass to eight different pass catchers. Maye’s trust and ability to distribute the football too each, in addition to the groups’ unselfishness, has been perhaps one of the biggest reasons for the Patriots turnarounds on offense.
“The strength of our wide receiver unit is in the unit,” Vrabel explained. “I know that that’s hard for a position, especially that position, but everybody’s catching passes, everybody’s catching touchdowns, they’re trying to block when they don’t have the ball. And I understand and I appreciate that. And so, I remind them of that.
“It’s not going to be just one guy getting 15 or 16 targets every week. I just don’t think that that’s what this is. I appreciate their unselfishness, and I think that that is just a small microcosm of what I want our football team to look like and feel, and be excited when Kyle [Williams] catches a touchdown, when Kayshon [Boutte] catches a touchdown or whoever it may be that gets a big third down conversion for us.”
A year after the Patriots wide receiver group finished last in the league in yards, the group enters a Week 14 bye ranking third in football (2,171) behind just the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams.
The stark change of production on the field ties back to the group’s unselfish attitude and relationship off the field as they root for their teammates’ success, while also making sure to push each other.
“It is hard not to feel it. As soon as you walk through the building, you see we share a whole locker, so we are always just cracking jokes and uplifting everybody,” rookie Kyle Williams said. “It is hard to be in a bad mood when you’ve got so many joyful people around you.”
“The camaraderie, guys really pulling for each other. It’s not fake out there,” Stefon Diggs added. “You want the guys to play well, you want the guys around you to play well. Throwing those extra blocks and doing all that. I think it goes a long way. We’re super hard on each other. I think the accountability is there, coming from when a guy doesn’t get as many yards or does this, we all...
