FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Patriots' defense has been locked and loaded for some time. They start 2019 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 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, Bill Belichick 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):
BOSTON SPORTS JOURNALSome 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 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 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."
The Patriots, like most teams, will have a few wrinkles for the Steelers in the opener. The most logical adjustment, considering the post-tight end landscape after Rob Gronkowski's retirement, is for the team to use more running backs — beyond the remarkably steady White — in the passing game. Certainly Burkhead, when healthy, has demonstrated the ability to do that. But the Patriots are also going to need Sony Michel to become more of a factor in the pass game.
Don't be surprised to see some formations where the Patriots use two tailbacks, fullback James Develin, and two receivers. Or any type of combination that doesn't feature a tight end, which figures to be a work in progress.
At times, for Brady's sake, you wish the Patriots' offense didn't have to reinvent itself basically from scratch every season. Basically McDaniels has to answer the question, "How the heck are we going to move the ball in this game?" to start every season. If there was more continuity around Brady, they could instead figure out more layers to spring bigger plays from the offense. Similar to how the defense, after so many games together, was able to come up with the amoeba package that proved unblockable and spearheaded the drive to a sixth Lombardi Trophy.
But, alas, this is the burden that falls on McDaniels and, especially, Brady because of their vast abilities — Belichick obviously thinks they can handle it and will make the best of it. Just like every other season.
Will they? We'll see on Sunday night.
"Up to this point, I hope we've made a lot of improvements since the beginning of training camp, but again I think that's going to work all the way through the entire season too," Brady said. "We'd like to, like I said, win these games because they're all important and they all matter, but we're going to have to go earn it."
The Patriots' first injury report of the season was released and only tight end Matt LaCosse (ankle), safety Obi Melifonwu (ankle) and Thomas (hamstring) were limited in practice. According to the Patriots, Edelman's left thumb, which was aggravated less than a week ago, is 100 percent for the Steelers' game.
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Editor's note: Greg Bedard is the owner, founder and lead NFL analyst of Boston Sports Journal, our sister site. I'll have a corresponding piece for BSJ later in the day. -- Dale Lolley
