FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots' defense has been locked and loaded for some time. They start this 2019 season with basically the same group for the third-straight season. No one really missed much time in training camp, and they even got meaningful game snaps together in the third preseason game.
The offense is almost the exact opposite. When Tom Brady takes the field Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he'll be throwing to an assortment of receivers where all but three (Phillip Dorsett, Ryan Izzo, Rex Burkhead) he didn't complete a pass to in the preseason: Julian Edelman (injured), Josh Gordon (suspended), Demaryius Thomas (injured), Matt LaCosse (injured), and James White (rest).
Throw in the fact that Isaiah Wynn is making his first career start at left tackle, and Ted Karras has replaced captain David Andrews (illness) at center, and you have the makings of one of the strangest starts to the season for an NFL offense.
That would be true if, you know, the quarterback was anyone other than Brady, and if the Patriots' offense and coordinator Josh McDaniels weren't used to dealing with this ... every ... single ... season.
Just take a look at some of the turnover/adjustments needed among the featured players in the passing games since 2015 (changes in bold):
Some other players would moan and complain — and perhaps he does that in private (he's been known to occasionally) — but at this point, Brady has almost come to expect the passing game to be a work in progress.
"It's part of football," Brady said. "It's a challenging thing, and that's why it's not always as fluid as you would hope it to be because you prepare for eight months for this game, and then you're getting used to guys we haven't really played with. Or we signed, whatever, three or four new players at the end of cuts that are backups to different positions and they don't have any experience."
In the short term, it's up to Brady and McDaniels to figure out a way to make this offense work. They'll be aided in the early going by the fact that opposing defenses have no clue either what the Patriots are going to do with this group of targets — there's virtually nothing on film.
Then once that happens, the Patriots are going to have to morph again and figure out their identity for the balance of the season.
"Look, we're going to try to work as hard as we can, like we always do," Brady said. "I don't think this team ever feels like we're a finished product, and I don't think we finish many practices and Coach (Bill) Belichick has been like, 'Man, we've got this all figured out.' I think we're trying to work at it every single day and put the time and effort and energy and commitment into it for each other, and you see how that pays off after a long season. The season's not over in two weeks, the season's not over at the end of September, or October, or November. It's a long year and we've got to make improvements."
(Adam Richins for BSJ)