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Thumbs up for Brown

Patriots should rely heavily on their new receiver

A.J. Brown dislocated his thumb, but the Patriots say they’re not concerned, and I’m not either. I’m expecting he’ll be putting up big numbers.

The opener is a month away, so I’m sure Brown’s thumb will be just fine by that time. And I love the offense he’s being dropped into.

The Patriots have an up-and-coming quarterback. More notably, they have an offensive coordinator who likes to get the ball in the hands of his No. 1 receiver – and Brown will definitely fill that role for them this season.

When it comes to heavily featuring wide receivers, Josh McDaniels is a fantasy friendly coach. His teams tend to put up good passing numbers, and he tends to want the ball in the hands of his top guy.

The numbers are pretty remarkable. McDaniels has been calling plays for most of the last 20 years, and his top wide receivers tend to pile up catches and yards. He’s had eight 100-catch receivers, and his top pass catcher tends to show up in the top 15 in PPR scoring.

McDaniels got 85 catches out of a past-his-pull-date Stefon Diggs last year.

McDaniels hasn’t had many misses with his top wide receivers, going back to Brandon Lloyd (!) leading the league in receiving yards in Denver.

McDaniels was the offensive coordinator for a pretty putrid St. Louis Rams offense in 2012, and he called the plays when Cam Newton bumbled his way to 8 TD passes in 2020 (thank God for the Covid pandemic – it saved thousands from having to see that offense in person). But the leading wide receivers from McDaniels’ last 16 other offenses have averaged 92 catches for 1,124 yards and 7.5 TDs.

I will be comfortable selecting Brown to be my No. 1 receiver, and I will be very excited if I can land him as my second player at the position.

JOSH McDANIELS' LEADING RECEIVERS
YearPlayerGNoYardsAvgTDPPRRk
2006Reche Caldwell, N.E.166176012.54163.534
2007Randy Moss, N.E.16981,49315.223385.31
2008Wes Welker, N.E.161111,16510.53250.110
2009Brandon Marshall, Den.151011,12011.110276.97
2010Brandon Lloyd, Den.16771,44818.811286.02
2011Brandon Gibson, St.L.153643112.0186.783
2012Wes Welker, N.E.161181,35411.56291.47
2013Julian Edelman, N.E.161051,05610.16251.714
2014Julian Edelman, N.E.149297210.64228.615
2015Julian Edelman, N.E.96169211.37174.535
2016Julian Edelman, N.E.16981,10611.33234.314
2017Brandin Cooks, N.E.16651,08216.77221.215
2018Julian Edelman, N.E.127485011.56207.921
2019Julian Edelman, N.E.161001,11711.26258.87
2020Jakobi Meyers, N.E.145972912.40145.053
2021Jakobi Meyers, N.E.178386610.42188.829
2022Davante Adams, L.V.171001,51615.214335.53
2023Davante Adams, L.V.171031,14411.18265.410
2025Stefon Diggs, N.E.17851,01311.94210.317
2026A.J. Brown, N.E.???????

—Ian Allan

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