3 Patriots on Thin Ice Entering Week 4

2. Every wide receiver on the team

We knew going into this season that the Patriots were going to be a work in progress at the wide receiver position, but things looked a lot better on paper than they have on the field so far.

And that's saying something, because on paper, the Patriots' best receiver going into the season was second-year player Demario Douglas. They used a second-round pick on Ja'Lynn Polk, who showed some nice things in the preseason, and they were confident enough in their young guys that they said goodbye to JuJu Smith-Schuster (who just had a TD last week for the Chiefs).

Through the first three weeks of the season, the Patriots' top receiver is, in fact, Douglas, who has nine receptions on 12 targets for a meager 81 total yards. It's been horrendous for New England at receiver from top to bottom, even some of the guys they maybe thought could come in and raise the floor at the position like KJ Osborn, who has done virtually nothing through the first handful of games to start the season.

Hunter Henry has been the team's only viable "go-to" option in the passing game this season, which is really a shame for the Patriots who need some of these young receivers to start stepping up so they can continually set the table for Drake Maye to come in at some point in the near future.

As of right now, the combination of the offensive line issues and the team's lack of production at wide receiver sort of seems to make the idea of Drake Maye coming into the lineup anytime soon make little to no sense. Not that everything is going to be perfect for him, but you don't want to set your young QB up to fail.

These receivers need to start making plays.