Patriots receivers’ turnaround sparked their tremendous Super Bowl comeback win

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

In the first half of Super Bowl LI, Patriots receivers did Tom Brady few favors. As the two-time MVP was hamstrung by an effective Falcons pass rush, his targets made uncharacteristic drops and struggled to adjust to the normally accurate quarterback’s rushed throws.

Brady laid claim to his fourth Super Bowl MVP Award just 34 minutes of game time later, but he couldn’t have done it without a turnaround performance from six key receivers. The five-time NFL champion turned to a cache of players that included undrafted free agents, a former MAC quarterback, a refugee from the Bears, and his third most-important tailback to dismantle Dan Quinn’s vaunted defense.

Together, that group found a way to spark the New England offense to 34 points — the most any team had scored on Atlanta through the 2016 season. More impressively, they did almost all of that damage after halftime.

The receiving revival kept the Falcons’ defensive backs on their heels as the game wore on. Here’s the Patriots receivers’ lackluster performance in the first.

Patriots receivers in the Super Bowl, first half

Player	Targets	Receptions	Catch rate	Yards	Yards per catch	TDs
James White	7	6	85.71%	63	10.50	0
Julian Edelman	9	3	33.33%	49	16.33	0
Danny Amendola	3	1	33.33%	13	13.00	0
Malcolm Mitchell	2	1	50.00%	7	7.00	0
Martellus Bennett	4	3	75.00%	25	8.33	0
Chris Hogan	3	2	66.67%	23	11.50	0

And here’s how they moved the chains in the second half and overtime:

Patriots receivers in the Super Bowl, second half and OT

Player	Targets	Receptions	Catch rate	Yards	Yards per catch	TDs
James White	9	8	88.89%	47	5.88	1
Julian Edelman	4	2	50.00%	38	19.00	0
Danny Amendola	8	7	87.50%	65	9.29	1
Malcolm Mitchell	5	5	100.00%	63	12.60	0
Martellus Bennett	2	2	100.00%	47	23.50	0
Chris Hogan	4	2	50.00%	34	17.00	0

In the second half and beyond, New England’s key receivers raised their catch rate from 57 percent to 81 percent. While the yards per catch stayed roughly the same, the combination of reduced drops (from three in Brady’s first 35 passes to zero for the rest of the game) and better targets from Brady led to an offensive explosion. After gaining 180 aerial yards in the first half and zero touchdowns, this group combined for 292 more and a pair of scores.

So, from where did Brady’s top targets come? At some point, every team in the league has had a chance to pick up each and every one of these receivers.

White, Edelman, and Mitchell are homegrown success stories, but were drafted in the fourth, seventh, and fourth rounds, respectively. Amendola and Hogan both went undrafted, then were signed away from the teams with which they broke into the league by a shrewd Patriots front office. Martellus Bennett is the only player among that group to have been selected during the first two days of the NFL draft (current format), but a lackluster 2015 season in Chicago pushed his acquisition cost (alongside a Bears sixth-round pick) down to a fourth-round pick via trade.

Brady leveled up in the second half and overtime, but he couldn’t have done it without a superlative effort from his receiving corps. Case in point:

But the players who stepped up to drive the Patriots’ offense weren’t blue-chippers scouts predicted would push New England back to its dynastic ways. Instead, they were the late-round picks and overlooked athletes on which Bill Belichick has come to rely. Anyone in the league could have assembled the corps that made the plays that decided Super Bowl LI — although without Tom Brady at quarterback, it may not have mattered.