NFL Notebook: With regular-season looming, where do Patriots' stand at wide receiver?

In this week’s edition of the NFL Notebook, we talk with former Patriots’ assistant Pepper Johnson about what it takes to survive as a coach under Bill Belichick, how the last week of the preseason is going to look, and who is leading the team in snaps and penalties this summer. But first, we look at the latest developments for New England at the wide receiver position.

1. With two weeks to go before the start of the regular season, where do things stand with the Patriots’ wide receiving corps? With Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett and Cordarrelle Patterson looking like locks, New England could go with two of the three from this list: Eric Decker, Braxton Berrios and Riley McCarron. Decker, who had his first two catches of the summer on Friday, remains a polarizing prospect, but on Saturday, Bill Belichick talked about Decker, and lauded his ability to pick things up.


“I think Eric’s learned everything well. Again, he had a background in this system in Denver with Josh (McDaniels) and he’s played multiple positions in the offense since he’s been here,” Belichick said. “I don’t think learning is really a problem for him, and he has a lot of experience of some of the more sophisticated routes, option routes and things like that. (They're) all things that he’s done, and it’s just really a question of getting the timing and the exactly how you want to do it and seeing enough looks on it so that you and the quarterback know exactly what it is.

“He’s learned well and he’s been able to play multiple positions for us,” Belichick added. “So that’s not a problem.”

As for Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas, one NFC scout says the Patriots would be wise to stay away from Bryant, saying he would be a bad fit in New England. “A poor attitude, and his skills as a receiver are diminishing,” he said of Bryant. “Not a good fit for them.” (As for Thomas, he sounds a little more optimistic. “I would say attitude is right,” he said. “But I haven’t watched him in years to know about his skill set now.”)

2. One thing to watch for this week: The Patriots used last year’s preseason finale against the Giants as a chance for wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea and then-assistant Brian Flores to call plays. (Flores actually did it the last two straight seasons in the preseason finale.) From this perspective, I’d expect things to remain status quo on the defensive side of the ball — Flores is still new to the de facto DC job, and he needs all the experience he can get before the regular season. It’ll be interesting to see if O’Shea gets the call again this time around, or if another offensive assistant gets the call.