Welcome to Going Deep! This weekly article will use charting data, advanced metrics, and other RotoViz tools to help its readers better understand the challenges facing wide receivers and tight ends in the coming week.

Here are the highlights for Week 2.

New England Patriots

Opponent: Jets

WR Difficulty Per SoS: Favorable

TE Difficulty Per SoS: Very Favorable

Overall Assessment: Favorable

New England doesn’t have the best WR group in the league but it should overmatch the Jets’ secondary. In Week 1, Jakobi Meyers was the Patriots’ most used WR from the slot. He’ll likely spend the majority of snaps in this game being defended by Round 5 rookie, Michael Carter II. In Carter’s opening game against the Panthers, he was targeted four times and allowed two completions, with one pass defended and just 10 yards surrendered.^[1]Passes defended refer to players where the defender broke up the throw at the catch point. This can be done by either knocking the ball away or hitting the receiver as the ball reaches them to disrupt the catch.

Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne will draw coverage from Bryce Hall and Brandin Echols. The duo was targeted seven times in Week 1 and allowed four completions for 35 yards. This was a decent showing but it belies the struggles the Jets secondary saw in 2020. In that season, the team ranked in the bottom quartile of the majority of pass defense metrics. When defending targets specifically to receivers, the team ranked 31st in completion percentage and 22nd in yards per attempt. To be fair, Echols, a Round 6 rookie, wasn’t part of the unit. Neither was Carter II.

The Patriots used sets with two tight ends only 13 times in their first game. While New York’s secondary consists of some different pieces this year, it’s worth noting that only two teams gave up more yardage per game when facing two TE sets in 2020. In Week 1, the Jets defended against 11 such dropbacks, allowing eight completions, 116 yards, and a touchdown. The majority of these targets were aimed at WRs or running backs, with just a single target going toward a TE.