Analysis: With Amendola gone, could Riley McCarron help in the slot?

One of the biggest questions I’ve gotten over the last month or so is whether or not Riley McCarron might have what it takes to pick up some of the slack left by the departure of Danny Amendola. So let’s take a look at his body of work to see what sort of player he is.

The 24-year-old McCarron (he’ll turn 25 in June) is a 5-foot-9, 185-pounder out of Iowa who spent the bulk of last season on the New England practice squad after a brief stint with the Texans. Houston coach Bill O’Brien called McCarron the “spitting image of (Wes) Welker,” and some of that is easy to see on the surface, right down to the No. 83 on his back. McCarron was coached briefly in Houston last year by Welker, and like Welker, he’s more of a horizontal threat, someone who can go over the middle and catch quick outs while maneuvering his way to the sticks for a first down. He's undersized, and is not going to beat you deep.

“Not to say he's like Wes, but you can see he was coached by Wes, in the way he runs some routes,” Devin McCourty told Bostonsportsjournal.com when we asked him about McCarron. “We played against him in camp in West Virginia when he was in the slot. But scout team wise (after he signed with us), he was able to play all over at receiver and do well.”

One more thing? He has special teams value. And in the New England system, that can sometimes be enough to provide an entry point that could eventually lead to a bigger offensive role down the road.



At the professional level, the closest McCarron got to live game action last year were 72 snaps in the preseason with Houston, including 22 in a Week 2 preseason game against the Patriots. He ended the summer with four catches for 24 yards, and also had one punt return for a yard and a pair of kick returns for 32 yards.

In his limited work last summer, there are a few things we can tell about his game: Despite McCourty's quote, he was utilized almost purely as a slot receiver. He may have grown over the course of the 2017 season while a part of New England's scout team, but in game action, he was pretty much limited to slot duty.

Two, he’s not going to outrace anyone. He’s fast (and his raw speed is better than most at his position, at least when you take his Pro Day times into consideration), but he doesn’t have what you might call breakaway speed.

And three, based on what he did last year (and considering the state of the Patriots’ return game), he could have an edge on some others at the back end of the depth chart because of his special teams value. New England lost Amendola and Dion Lewis this offseason, and while Cordarelle Patterson figures to be the first option at kick returner, McCarron's experience as a punt returner is a good starting point when it comes to any sort of positional battle at the back end of the depth chart.

He did more of it in college — more on that in a second — but he returned one kick for 17 yards last summer. That was here against New England. Again, when it comes to 2018, he’s going to take a back seat to Patterson when it comes to kick return work. But simply having another guy on the roster with experience in that department is a good thing.



Here’s one of his catches from last summer, this one late in the preseason win over the Patriots. A simple, clean Welkeresque route over the middle.



And that's pretty much it when it comes to NFL highlights. Because there’s such a lack of film on him at the NFL level, we went back to his senior year at Iowa and watched almost every snap of his from 2016. In college, the majority of his work was as a slot presence. Prior to his last year with the Hawkeyes, he had just eight catches for 67 yards in three years. His last season in college, after taking advantage of increased playing time because someone ahead of him on the depth chart went down with an injury, he had 42 catches for 517 yards and four touchdowns. Again, McCarron is not going to wow anyone with breakaway speed; instead, it’s about being able to gain separation in a small space and show an awareness of the location of the first-down marker.





Nice hands on this one where he manages to hold on to the ball and pick up the first down.



Even though this play backfired, it's a good sign. The Iowa coaching staff had enough confidence in him, even in his first full year as a starter, to have him try and execute this trick play. Things break down because no one picks up the blitzing defender, but in this case, it's the thought that counts.



The area where he might be able to make the most immediate impact on the 2018 roster is at punt returner. At Iowa, he had 19 career returns for 179 yards, an average of 9.4 yards per opportunity, and had one touchdown. His best year came as a senior in 2016 when he had seven returns for 148 yards and a really impressive 21.1 yards per return average. That included this 55-yard return for a touchdown against Illinois, a play where he showed really nice field vision and a good burst in the open field.



There was also this one against Nebraska. On both returns, there was another returner back there with him who ended up blocking for him, so that likely played a role in him being able to find an early hole. But still, both returns are well-executed.



It's important to reiterate that we don't know about any possible progressions in the game last year while he was on the practice squad. (It's reasonable to think he's gotten bigger and faster.) It's just to create a reasonable level of expectation at the NFL level.

Even with Amendola's departure, New England's wide receiver depth chart is crowded. And there are a few other possibilities when it comes to punt returner, including Cyrus Jones. (While Julian Edelman is one of the best to do it in recent league history, his overall importance to the offense likely supersede any regular special-teams reps, at least for now.) As a result, the road map for McCarron is clear: Spend all offseason with the JUGS gun. Catch a million punts a day. And hope the Patriots don't pick up any other potential returners. So much of success at the NFL level is about being able to be ready for your shot and take advantage of the opportunity when it's presented to you. McCarron was able to do that when he stepped into a starting role at Iowa, using that as a springboard to becoming an NFL-ready prospect. With the special-teams turnover this offseason in New England, the same sort of opening could be on the horizon.