FOXBORO, Mass. — Brandon LaFell didn’t single anyone out, but we all know the names.
Joey Galloway, Torry Holt, Chad Johnson, Greg Lewis — veteran receivers who had success elsewhere but couldn’t catch on to the New England Patriots’ complex offensive system. When LaFell signed a three-year, $9 million contract with the Patriots this offseason, he didn’t want to be known as the guy who couldn’t get acclimated to the offense.
“Man, just, I didn’t want to be one of those guys,” LaFell said Wednesday in the Patriots’ locker room. “He comes in, high expectations and he can’t get on the field cause he don’t know the plays. What I did when I first got here, man, I just asked questions. I wasn’t too proud. I just asked questions, and asked these guys who’ve been here like Julian (Edelman), (Aaron Dobson) — guys that knew the offense. I just asked them questions and got in my playbook every day.”
Whatever LaFell did when he came to New England, it worked. Unlike those players listed above, LaFell came in and almost immediately earned a starting role despite some steep competition at receiver. LaFell beat out Dobson and Kenbrell Thompkins for the starting “X” receiver role, and he already notched a 100-yard game in the Patriots’ Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
It’s not unheard of for a free-agent receiver to catch on quickly, but LaFell joins a mostly lofty group that also includes Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Brandon Lloyd. With LaFell, however, there were doubts that he could catch on quickly. The fifth-year pro came from a simpler numbers-based system with the Carolina Panthers.
“No matter where you at, if you’re leaning a new offense, it’s 200 plays at least you gotta learn, 30 or 40 different formations,” LaFell said. “It was pretty tough, but I think the offense we ran in Carolina, if you knew where to line up at — it was a numbers system — as long as you know where to line up at, you knew your number. And this is all words, it’s all code words. On different plays, you can switch — on one play, I might be the X. We go no huddle, I might be the Z next play. It’s just all different.”
It’s a risk whenever the Patriots sign or draft a wideout, because there’s always a chance that they might not work out. The Patriots spent high picks on Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson, Brandon Tate and Taylor Price, and none of them panned out. Dobson was drafted in the second round of last year’s draft, and he’s currently sitting behind LaFell on the depth chart.
LaFell acknowledged that the Patriots’ system is difficult to learn but couldn’t explain why other players couldn’t grasp it.
“Man, I really can’t speak on that. I really don’t know why it made it so difficult for other players, but for me, it was difficult,” LaFell said. “But I just put in the time, the extra time to learn my playbook.”
As cliche as it sounds, hard work and dedication seems to be the key for learning the Patriots’ offense and gaining the trust in quarterback Tom Brady to start. Another newcomer, tight end Tim Wright, tried to explain the key to fitting in with the Patriots.
“I think working hard outside the facility. Lock in and focus in on what really your job is, and the coaches play a big part of it,” Wright said Wednesday. “They definitely try to get the point across — how specific the game is, how crucial the details are. When you lock in and focus on your job, you gotta do it.”
That’s what it all comes down to in New England — do your job.
