This common-sense approach from Patriots is promising

BOSTON -- In many ways, football is the most complicated sport on earth. From the 22 moving parts on the field, to the high-pressure communication on the sidelines and in the coaching booths, to the challenges of constructing a complete roster and managing a salary cap, the business and operation of an NFL team is quite complex, to say the least.

In other ways, though, it's rather simple.

Fortunately for the Patriots, head coach Jerod Mayo and director of scouting Eliot Wolf appear to understand that the simple approach can be effective in spots. In their case, they aren't overcomplicating their goals on offense.

"We need to weaponize the offense," Wolf said Tuesday at the combine when discussing how the Patriots will build their roster.

On Wednesday, Mayo was asked to offer his interpretation of what "weaponizing the offense" means.

"Putting people on the offensive side of the ball that the defensive side has to prepare for, whether that's double-teaming or anything like that," Mayo said, per Patriots.com's Evan Lazar.

Again, it's a simple theory, yet it's one that the Patriots had really gotten away from in recent years.

The last offensive player who really created matchup problems for defenses was Julian Edelman, who played just six games in 2020 and retired the following offseason. Second-year undrafted wideout Jakobi Meyers was the leading receiver, followed by Damiere Byrd.

A year before, it was Edelman and James White who represented the only true game-changing offensive skill players on the roster. Tom Brady's final season in New England involved an offense with Phillip Dorsett, Mohamed Sanu, rookie Meyers, Rex Burkhead, Josh Gordon, rookie N'Keal Harry, and out-of-retirement Ben Watson as the top targets behind Edelman and White.

After Edelman's retirement, the team spent big money on Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith, two of whom never quite delivered on their contracts. The team largely ran it back on offense the next season, aside from acquiring DeVante Parker via trade.

And after Meyers had taken major steps toward becoming an Edelman-esque matchup problem for defenses ... the Patriots let him walk in free agency and opted to sign JuJu Smith-Schuster to replace him. Smith-Schuster would end up with just 29 receptions for 260 yards and one touchdown in 11 games played.

The Patriots tried to address the lack of dynamic playmakers in the draft, usually with unsuccessful results (outside of DeMario Douglas last year). Their highest picks at offensive skill positions in recent years were Tyquan Thornton, N'Keal Harry and Sony Michel. They've gotten contributions from later-round picks (Damien Harris, Rhamondre Stevenson, the aforementioned Douglas), but the lack of game-changing talent found through the draft and free agency has been apparent for some time.

And looking around at the league's top teams every Sunday, it's become clear that offensive playmakers have become more important to success than they had in some previous eras of professional football. Every single Super Bowl champion and every single conference champion over the past five years employed skill players who could be considered anywhere from great to elite: Travis Kelce on the Chiefs and Christian McCaffrey/Deebo Samuel/Brandon Aiyuk on the 49ers last year; Kelce with the Chiefs and A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith with the Eagles in 2022; Cooper Kupp with the Rams and Ja'Marr Chase/Tee Higgins/Joe Mixon in 2021; the Mike Evans-Chris Godwin-Rob Gronkowski trio in Tampa in 2020, and the Kelce-Tyreek Hill duo in Kansas City; and the Kelce-Hill duo in 2019 for the Chiefs and the George Kittle-Deebo Samuel duo in 2019 for the Niners.

The 2018 Patriots had Edelman and Gronkowski when they won the Super Bowl, with Edelman winning Super Bowl MVP and Gronkowski making the diving catch to set up the winning touchdown in that game. As Gronkowski and Edelman (and, well, Tom Brady) departed the franchise, proper elite-level replacements never entered the picture. That's been a significant contributor to the offense ranking, on average, 25th in the NFL over the past four years.

For the past few seasons, even those of us on the outside have been able to look at upcoming games for the Patriots and say that nobody on their offense would keep any opposing defensive coordinators up at night leading into a game. Those defenses could run their base defense, manning up across the board, without the threat of ever getting gashed. Certainly, for as much as Bourne or Meyers could occasionally "explode" with a 100-yard game, a consistent big-play threat has been missing from the Patriots for some time. Meanwhile, the best teams in the league have been leaning on their stars to carry the offense.

Obviously, the quarterback is critical to the success of the offense. But based on the simple words spoken by Mayo and Wolf this week, the Patriots at least intend to refocus on the receiving end of that equation moving forward in a way that's been lacking for half a decade.