Patriots Rookie Development Plan: WR Tre Nixon, Central Florida (7th round)

Unlike a lot of other teams — and this is part of the reason why they’re the Patriots and everyone else isn’t — the Patriots do not hand their draft picks starting positions or main roles before they even set foot on a field or prove themselves. Often, that’s a path to failure for many rookies. The Patriots, instead, put their rookies on the road to success by giving them smaller, defined roles to start with, which then, perhaps, can be expanded once they master the basics.

Michael Lombardi, who has longtime ties to Bill Belichick and was recently a personnel executive with the team, touched on this in his podcast, The GM Shuffle, a few years ago as he related the story about how 49ers draft pick (and future Hall of Famer) Charles Haley was taught only the defense for passing situations as a designated pass rusher as a rookie.

“Once you draft these guys, you have to have a plan for these guys because if you give them the Manhattan phone directory and say, ‘Learn this,’ he ain’t learning it — you might as well put him off for next year. So you have to define the role for the player as soon as you draft a player. What New England will do is say (Chase) Winovich, he’ll come in and here’s his role. He’s going to play, this, this, X, Y and Z. That’s all. Once he gets that, then maybe we’ll teach him a little bit more. We’ll start to grow him, allow him to grow more. … You have to develop the player. That allows him to have an impact on your team moving forward.”

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Player: Tre Nixon, UCF
Pick: 7th round (242nd overall)
Position: WR
Patriots scheme position: Z receiver
Ht/wgt: 6-0, 187
Speed: 4.44 in the 40; 6.81 3-cone.

Positional depth chart

Draft pick comparison: Josh Boyce, TCU — 2013, 4th round, 102nd overall

Boyce was a little heavier than Nixon out of school, but I think Nixon cut weight for his pro day. He looked very solid and well-built on film, so I wouldn't be surprised if he played closer to 200 pounds like Boyce. Boyce was drafted three rounds higher because he ran a 4.38. Boyce was OK here, but he caught nine passes as a rookie in nine games (three starts), had some injury issues and then was gone with one appearance in '14. Patriots didn't have time to wait on Boyce, and he never played in the NFL again.

Development plan: As a seventh-round pick, he's obviously a long shot. The Patriots are just going to throw everyone out there and see what happens — there are no sacred cows outside of Agholor and Bourne — so if you can play, you're going to play. The first step will be for Nixon to show that he can understand and apply the pass concepts. Working against him is that UCF ran the fastest offense in college football — they never huddled — and the concepts were not high-level (simple = fast). That being said, Nixon looks like a smart player on the field. Really liked how, on the touchdown where he sustained his shoulder injury, Nixon beat the corner and then stemmed the route (moved back in front of the CB to cut him off) to give the QB room to make the throw. Also going for Nixon: QBs Cam Newton, Jarrett Stidham and Mac Jones aren't all that much further into the Patriots playbook than Nixon, so it's not like he's trying to get on the same level as Tom Brady. 

Best-case scenario: Nixon shines on special teams as a gunner (I don't think he has much if any return experience but I wouldn't doubt him getting a chance) and wins a job that way, and shows enough at WR that he can play in case of injury. Who knows, maybe he's the replacement for Matthew Slater (almost exact same size and speed ... Nixon was much better on the 3-cone drill) down the line? 

Worst-case scenario: He doesn't distinguish himself, gets released and signed to the practice squad. I think this is the most likely scenario, and it could benefit him. If the Patriots could find a way to get Nixon to play more naturally like the athlete he is with development, then they might have something. On his college film, he was just ordinary. Totally willing blocker, will go up and take a hit, good but not great speed going down the field. But there's nothing about him that stands out, and that's fine at this point. He has very good balance and plays smart, but he doesn't threaten to break big plays. He plays like a possession receiver with average speed. A few times he reminded me of Danny Amendola, but Nixon will need to embrace his inner athlete to become that good. He doesn't play nearly as fast as he timed.