Game against Steelers isn’t a must-win, but A.J. Brown’s injury makes the Patriots’ road ahead far more daunting

They opened the season with a loss they surely will come to regret, failing to protect a 10-point lead in the second half and losing to the Seahawks’ backup quarterback. Now the road ahead is suddenly far more daunting than any of us realized back in August.

That’s because no one projected the Patriots would lose their top offensive weapon in the first game of the season. A.J. Brown, the linchpin of the Patriots’ offensive attack, will be out 4-6 weeks with a high ankle sprain, possibly longer.

Get exclusive analysis and insight on the Patriots and the NFL, delivered to your inbox on weekdays during the season.

It’s hard to overstate the enormity of this loss for the Patriots’ offense. Brown is their deep threat, contested-catch expert, and most physical offensive weapon. He draws extra attention from the defense and opens up the field for his teammates. The entire offseason plan to improve the roster revolved around trading a future first-round pick for Brown.

The Patriots never had to worry about playing without their No. 1 receiver last year. Stefon Diggs, coming off a torn ACL, played in all 21 games, including playoffs.

Diggs is gone, though, of the Patriots’ own choosing. So is Kayshon Boutte, their top deep threat last year. Now with Brown out, a wide receiver position that was the team’s strength in training camp is suddenly thin.

“I wish life was like that, where you could wait for your guys to come back and be healthy again,” fellow receiver Mack Hollins said. “But, it’s NFL football.”

Last year, Brown’s injury wouldn’t have been as significant. The Patriots’ early-season schedule was loaded with cupcakes, from Miami to Carolina, Tennessee, New Orleans, and more.

This year, the Patriots have no such luck. They have to reconfigure their offense on the fly against a ruthless schedule. After hosting Pittsburgh, they travel to Jacksonville for a game that looks like a potential bloodbath for the Patriots, then to Buffalo, which just scored 36 points against the Texans’ defense. If the Patriots aren’t careful, they could be 1-3 or 0-4 before they blink.

With Brown out, the wide receiver depth chart suddenly doesn’t look so hot — Romeo Doubs, DeMario Douglas, Kyle Williams, Efton Chism, and Hollins. It looks like a return to the Dark Ages of 2022-24, when the Patriots had a bunch of No. 2 and 3 receivers, but no one that scared an opposing defense.

Doubs will surely bounce back from a rough Week 1, and Hunter Henry, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Hollins are reliable weapons in the passing game. But none of them require a double team or extra attention, and they will find the field much more compressed without Brown in the lineup.

So now Maye and Josh McDaniels need to find ways to manufacture explosive plays and get peripheral pieces involved. One player squarely in the spotlight is Williams, last year’s third-round pick who has blazing speed but has struggled to learn the offense. Williams had just 12 snaps and no targets in Week 1, suggesting he still has a ways to go. But at minimum, the Patriots need to get him the ball on designed plays — jet sweeps, quick screens, and crossers.

Another solution could be to turn into a ground-and-pound team that hits a few big plays with play-action passes. Given the Patriots’ lack of a No. 1 receiver, play-action may be the only consistent way to create separation. The Patriots need to use a lot more of fullback Reggie Gilliam, who played just 13 of 71 snaps against the Seahawks.

But the Patriots aren’t really built for a power run game. The loss of No. 2 blocking tight end Julian Hill to a torn ACL this spring was quietly significant, as the Patriots now have little depth behind Henry. Backups Eli Raridon, Tanner Arkin, and Cameron Latu, two rookies and a journeyman, aren’t ready to fill Hill’s role up front. The Patriots’ run game was smothered by the Seahawks, with Stevenson and Corey Kiner averaging just 2.6 yards on their 24 carries.

The Patriots’ X-factor becomes TreVeyon Henderson, their second-year running back. He has been out nearly a month since suffering an ankle injury in practice but returned to practice Monday and may have a chance to play Sunday against the Steelers. Henderson is the Patriots’ most dynamic runner, scoring four touchdowns of 50-plus yards last year. Henderson is the Patriots’ best hope of replacing Brown’s impact and loosening up the defense, especially if McDaniels can move him around the formation.

Coach Mike Vrabel wasn’t stressing much on Monday when asked about moving on without Brown.

“I don’t know how much we want to tweak things,” he said. “We’ll [just] have to move guys around to different positions.”

But coming off a regrettable loss and facing a brutal schedule, Brown was the one non-quarterback piece the Patriots could least afford to lose.

From the source Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected].