Brandon Lafell didn't want to be "one of those guys" that couldn't learn the offense

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What do Joey Galloway, Torry Holt, Chad Johnson, Greg Lewis, Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson, Brandon Tate and Taylor Price all have in common?

Who are receivers that couldn't learn the Patriots offense. I'll take Patriots wide receiver problems for 800 Alex.

All joking aside, the wide receiver position in the Patriots offense is a complicated position to learn. For every Randy Moss that comes in and learns the offense right off the bat there are three more players that just could not grasp it.

Brandon Lafell was determined to be more Randy Moss and Wes Welker rather than Chad and Bethel Johnson.

NESN.com

Man, just, I didn’t want to be one of those guys,” LaFell said Wednesday in the Patriots’ locker room. “He comes in, high expectations and he can’t get on the field cause he don’t know the plays. What I did when I first got here, man, I just asked questions. I wasn’t too proud. I just asked questions, and asked these guys who’ve been here like Julian (Edelman), (Aaron Dobson) — guys that knew the offense. I just asked them questions and got in my playbook every day.

No matter where you at, if you’re leaning a new offense, it’s 200 plays at least you gotta learn, 30 or 40 different formations,” LaFell said. “It was pretty tough, but I think the offense we ran in Carolina, if you knew where to line up at — it was a numbers system — as long as you know where to line up at, you knew your number. And this is all words, it’s all code words. On different plays, you can switch — on one play, I might be the X. We go no huddle, I might be the Z next play. It’s just all different.

Lafell has jumped into the playbook head first and put in the necessary effort to learn the offense. It doesn't mean the other players didn't do that, just that Lafell has. And so far it has payed off. He has surpassed Aaron Dobson on the depth chart and has already had a 100 yard game.

As the season goes on Lafell will get more comfortable with the offense. And with that his production should continue to go up, giving Brady another reliable target. And with his size, that could turn him in to a viable red zone threat.

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