The Patriots are once again reminded of their poor selection of wide receivers.

Commentary: The Patriots’ recent poor draft selections include Pittsburgh’s George Pickens, who was selected two picks after Tyquan Thornton was selected by New England.

A new game, another reminder of the wide receiver deficiencies of the Patriots.

Bill Belichick assembled a Hall of Fame career over the last 20 years that included six Super Bowl victories.

There have been many hits and misses in the 24 Patriots draft classes that have been held. The Patriots’ receiver deficiencies have been glaringly obvious this season in especially.

When the Patriots play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night, that will be the case once more. George Pickens, a receiver with 44 receptions, 748 yards, and three touchdowns, leads them offensively.

Two spots after the Patriots moved up in the round to select receiver Tyquan Thornton, Pickens was selected 52nd overall in 2022. Thornton has 27 catches for 281 yards in two seasons. In five games this year, he has five catches for 34 yards.

One of the Patriots’ few persistent problems has been their inability to select elite receiver talent in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. The offensive catastrophe of this season serves to highlight the point.

Pickens is just one of many players the Patriots have lined up for this season.

The Patriots’ season began in Week 1 with a game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Patriots’ selection of receiver N’Keal Harry 32nd overall—ahead of the Eagles’ leading receiver, A.J. Brown—in that game served as a stark reminder of the class’s shortcomings in the 2019 draft.

After the Patriots selected Harry, Brown acknowledged that he sobbed because he was disappointed that he wasn’t drafted by them. It was an even worse choice four years later. Brown is an All-Pro receiver and a two-time Pro Bowler. He has seven touchdowns on 81 receptions for 1,164 yards. This is his fourth season with 1,000 yards from receptions. Harry hasn’t accumulated 1,000 career receiving yards in five seasons while playing for the Minnesota Vikings practice squad.

Belichick received a different kind of reminder in Week 6. It was the sight of Jakobi Meyers in Las Vegas, not a draft error. This offseason, the Patriots signed JuJu Smith-Schuster instead of Meyers, the man who had led the team in receiving for three seasons. Just that one play set the stage for the Patriots’ passing attack this autumn.

Meyers has caught 52 passes for 591 yards and six touchdowns for the Raiders in 11 games. Smith-Schuster, who took his place, has already this season totaled 25 catches for 170 yards and one touchdown. In one game, he received more than 40 yards. Meyers possesses seven.

A second reminder of that 2019 draft came in Week 9, when the Patriots faced the Washington Commanders. Terry McLaurin, a Pro Bowl receiver selected in the third round of the 2019 draft who has three seasons with 1,000 yards or more, is the team’s star receiver.

That same week, Belichick remarked, “He’s had a great career.” He is an extremely powerful player who poses a threat to the defense at every level and is excellent after the catch. All those guys really are. He is capable of making catch-and-run, intermediate, and down-field plays. He can play many different positions and is quick. They shuffle him around. Still, they pass the ball to all of them. He’s obviously one of the best players in the league, even though it’s not like he gets all the targets. That is beyond question.

There were many excellent receivers available in the 2019 draft, including Diontae Johnson, D.K. Metcalf, and Deebo Samuel.

Though not as strong as the 2022 class, a few receivers selected after Thornton have performed better. The Patriots also had a game against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 10 this autumn, which featured receiver Alec Pierce. In the second round, Pierce was selected three spots after Thornton. With 391 receiving yards this fall, he has more than Thornton’s total since last year, with 984 yards over the course of two seasons.

Though Harry and Thornton’s most recent draft disappointments stand out, the Los Angeles Chargers’ visit to the area last weekend served as another reminder. Aaron Dobson was selected by the Patriots with pick 59 in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Keenan Allen was selected seventeen picks later in the third round (pick 76), and he has had an incredible career with the Chargers.

An elite receiver completely transforms an offense. Since Julian Edelman in 2019, the Patriots haven’t had a wide receiver with 1,000 yards. Rob Gronkowski was the last Pro Bowl pass catcher they had in 2018.

By the end of the Brady era, it was clear that the Patriots were lacking in elite offensive weapons. For this reason, they signed Antonio Brown, traded for Josh Gordon, selected Harry in the first round, and then acquired Mohamed Sanu in exchange for a second-round pick. It would have greatly aided if Brown or Samuel had been selected rather than Harry.

It’s now a problem that the draft, which requires a certain amount of luck, can solve. As we’ve seen this season, selecting a receiver in the first few rounds has cost Belichick’s Patriots team dearly in terms of performance.

Pickens is just one more example of the Patriots offense putting up historically poor stats.