Can Troy Brown reverse the curse of the WR?
By Jon Galvin
Boston fans are familiar with the Curse of the Bambino, the failure of the Red Sox to win the World Series supposedly as the result of the 1919 sale of Babe Ruth to the hated New York Yankees. There is another curse in Boston sports, origin unknown, that perhaps should be called the Curse of the WR.
The Pats have been almost uniformly unsuccessful in drafting wide receivers, particularly in Rounds 3 or above, in the Belichick years. You have to reach back to 2005 to find a WR—Deion Branch—drafted by the Patriots in Round 2 or higher who was not a failure in the NFL. In 11 seasons with New England and Seattle, Branch had 518 receptions and 39 TDs.
Besides Branch, here are the rest of the WRs drafted by the Patriots in Rounds 3 or higher from 2000 through 2018:
Year Drafted | Round | Player | Career (yrs.) | Recs | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | 2 | Bethel Johnson | 4 | 39 | 4 |
2006 | 2 | Chad Jackson | 3 | 14 | 3 |
2009 | 3 | Brandon Tate | 10 | 71 | 7 |
2010 | 3 | Taylor Price | 2 | 5 | 0 |
2013 | 2 | Aaron Dobson | 3 | 53 | 4 |
The penultimate draft failure, of course, was the selection by the Patriots of N’Keal Harry in the 1st round of the 2019 Draft. Many teams other than the Patriots reaped great benefits from the 2019 draft which was one of the outstanding WR drafts of all-time. Here are the numbers to date for many of the outstanding WRs selected in 2019:
Round | Player | Receptions | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Marquise Brown | 262 | 24 |
1 | N'Keal Harry | 64 | 5 |
2 | Deebo Samuel | 223 | 12 |
2 | A.J. Brown | 273 | 35 |
2 | D.K. Metcalf | 306 | 35 |
2 | Mecole Hardman | 151 | 16 |
3 | Diontae Johnson | 340 | 20 |
3 | Terry McLaurin | 299 | 21 |
5 | Hunter Renfrow | 244 | 17 |
5 | Darius Slayton | 170 | 15 |
You could have done better drafting WRs from 2000 to 2019 by picking them out of a hat than the Patriots did despite the countless hours of scouting and analyzing that the Patriots' staff must have done. We have to assume, therefore, that the Patriots draft of wide receivers has been cursed, by who and for what reason is still a mystery.
What does Troy Brown have to do with reversing this curse? Troy Brown has been the Patriots wide receivers coach since 2021 and was the head coach of the West team in the 2023 East-West Shrine game. Brown, therefore, has responsibility for the development, even if he did not have the final say in the drafting, of Tyquan Thornton, Kayshon Boutte, and Demario Douglas.
Unfortunately, neither the problematic Boutte nor Thornton, who received one of the lowest rankings for wide receivers in 2022 from Pro Football Focus, provides much reason for optimism. Brown’s best hope may lie in the diminutive Demario Douglas.
Of the three WRs above, Douglas is also the one I’d most closely associate with Brown, who both coached and scouted him in the Shrine Bowl. The Patriots had to have Brown’s recommendation to draft Douglas. Brown owns this pick more than the two others.
It will be up to Brown, therefore, to take one of these 2022 and 2023 picks and reverse the curse. If anyone can do it, three-time Super Bowl champ Troy Brown is likely the one.