New England Patriots
“Uncertainty in professional sports, it’s a large part of what you have to deal with.”
Mike Vrabel discussed New England’s wideout room on Friday before practice. Mark Stockwell for The Boston Globe
August 7, 2026 | 1:28 PM
3 minutes to read
FOXBOROUGH — Something presumably has to give with New England’s wide-receiver room.
While New England should receive a significant boost with the addition of two talented pass-catchers in A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs, there’s only so many hands to go around when it comes to reeling in passes from Drake Maye.
For now, New England seemingly has seven wideouts in play for the 53-man roster: Brown, Doubs, Kayshon Boutte, DeMario Douglas, Mack Hollins, Kyle Williams, and Efton Chism.
It’s not unheard of for NFL teams to carry seven wideouts once the regular season begins. But there are several other areas of New England’s depth chart that could use the extra body that New England would be allocating to the wideout room if it keeps that personnel intact.
Speaking to reporters ahead of Friday’s practice in Foxborough, Mike Vrabel didn’t miss a beat when asked if he’d be willing to roll into the season with seven wideouts.
“Sure — yeah,” he replied. “All we have to do is figure out the best way to keep guys that are going to help us win, that have roles on this team and that help us win. And that’s our job, that’s me, Eliot [Wolf], Ryan [Cowden] and Stretch [John Streicher], and everybody’s job is to try to find ways to keep the guys that give us the best chance to win however that may be.”
Even if Vrabel stressed that New England would be fine with its current grouping, there are several factors that could cut into that seven-man unit. Boutte has been mentioned in trade rumors throughout the offseason, although no deal has been struck to this point.
Boutte could secure a solid piece of draft capital, but New England also might have some reservations about moving a 24-year-old wideout in Boutte who has both built a strong rapport with Drake Maye and has impressed so far in training camp as an explosive deep-threat target.
Williams is another interesting name to follow.
Given his standing as a 2025 third-round pick and some of the explosive, big-play capabilities he showcased last season, it seems rather evident that Williams will factor into New England’s offensive plans this upcoming season.
But Williams hasn’t exactly popped so far during camp, logging plenty of reps with both the second and third-team units on offense. That doesn’t exactly bode well for a second-year pro already staring at an uphill climb for featured reps on this offense.
But Vrabel acknowledged Friday that New England believes Williams has a larger role to play moving forward.
“I really, really know that Kyle is going to help us,” Vrabel said. “His speed is going to help us. And I don’t want to use this and get this to be overblown, and I’m going to use the word scheme or – He’s got a skill set, right? We’re going to find ways to get him the ball, and it may be outside of just the normal installation plays, but that’s my responsibility, that’s Josh [McDaniels]’s responsibility, that’s Todd [Downings]’s, responsibility is to put him in those positions where we see the speed that showed up last year.
“And so, I know that he is going to be a large part of what we’re going to do, and those opportunities will continue to come. His release skills, his speed, his vertical speed, those are all things that we have to continue to take advantage of as we progress. And it’s a great room. It’s a good competitive room. And by competing and getting out there every single day, those will by nature increase his opportunities.”
The Patriots have a good problem on their hands when it comes to all of the talent they have in place on their wideout corps. But could that numbers crunch and the uncertainty that comes with assured snaps in this offense weigh on players like Boutte or Williams as camp progresses?
Vrabel doesn’t believe that’s the case, nor should it be a burden for those players.
“Uncertainty in professional sports, it’s a large part of what you have to deal with. And we ask them and try to help them not focus on things that they can’t control. Focus on trying to come in every day, compete, figure out what they need to do to get better, take the coaching from yesterday, not make the same mistakes twice, figure out what their role is, and then usually everything kind of takes care of itself after that.
“This isn’t the first time that a team’s had good depth at a position. I can go back to when I played here and showed up and there was eight linebackers that had all started for teams the previous year, and nobody asked a whole lot of questions. It was just practice your ass off and earn a role.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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