Wide receivers throwing the football is nothing new in New England.
David Patten, Randy Moss, Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman did it, the latter rather often and in some of the biggest games.
Jakobi Meyers, who’s never even reached the end zone as a receiver, threw a pair of touchdowns passes a year ago.
Newcomer Kendrick Bourne got into the mix this past week with 25-yard touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor to jumpstart the blowout of the Jets.
Trick plays. Double-passes. They are a part of the underlying fabric of Josh McDaniels’ offense.
One guy with a pretty unique perspective on the trick plays, of guys other than the quarterback throwing the football, is Patriots wide receivers coach Mick Lombardi. You see before landing in his current role in 2020, Lombardi spent time as an assistant quarterbacks coach in New England and for two seasons before that with the Jets.
It was literally his job to know the ins, outs and finer points of throwing.
So, you might think he shares that experience and expertise with guys like Bourne and Meyers, a converted college QB himself, when the Patriots are utilizing their pass-catchers as pass-throwers.
Nope.
“I'm not going to get technical with it. They can either throw it or they can't,” Lombardi said with a laugh during a Zoom session with reporters this week. “They either came out of the crib being able to throw or they came out of the crib not being able to throw. So I'm not talking about arm angles, 'C' throws, 'U' throws, I'm not talking about any of that stuff. If they can throw the ball 20 yards on a good rope, then you know what, they can throw the ball. But that's credit to them, they're great athletes. So I mean, look, if they can throw it, they can throw it. I'll let them just go in, it takes a great, instinctual, savvy guy to get that done. Credit to the Jakobis and the Kendricks to be able to do that. But no, I'm not getting into it too much. We're not taking three-step drops in my individual periods, if that's what you're asking.”
While the opportunity to have receivers throw the ball comes up rather often in New England, maybe more often than anywhere else, Lombardi jokes that there still may not be quite enough trick play reps to keep everyone in his position happy.
“I think it's funny, is when you put in one trick play for, you know, say it's where Jakobi's throwing it, or in this case, it was Kendrick, but of course, the entire room lights up and they're like, 'Let me throw one. Let me throw one. Let me throw one!' That's just naturally how it goes," Lombardi said.
“I think we give every guy a shot, and as we go through the process of just trying to find new ways to attack a defense, it's just, it's obviously playing off of certain other looks and other things we've done before. So, obviously that fit in well (against the Jets) and Kendrick's just a really good football player, and we feel confident in his ability to do that, and we just dialed it up, and it was a great call by Josh. Great execution by not only Kendrick, but Mike Onwenu on the cut block, Jakobi on the block in the slot, and then obviously Nelson's savvy to beat the corner. So, you know, it's just a collaborative effort and it takes a village, definitely, to get those plays run, and Kendrick did a great job of throwing it. I was proud of him.”
