When training camp/preseason starts defenses are almost always ahead of the offenses. The simple reason? It’s easier to destroy than to create.
The passing game is all about timing, and especially for a quarterback like Tom Brady, who has been in this offense for over a decade and knows exactly how he wants every route run and where he will have to put the ball.
So early last year, when you essentially only have Edelman who has caught a pass from Brady before, things were clunky. New guys would run the wrong route, or even run the right route but just not to Brady’s exact specifications, causing him to hold the ball that extra second that allows the pass rush to either sack him or at least disrupt the timing.
But the easiest example of how the passing game can lead to sacks is on hot routes, when a blitz comes. In those situations there is no margin for error. So if Kenbrell Thompkins, in his second or third NFL game, doesn’t see the blitz and run the right hot route (filling the space vacated by the blitzer), Brady’s going to have to take the sack.
The protection, quarterback progression and receiver routes are all connected and when one element of it is off it makes everything else look bad.
This is also why there’s so much talk of Brady having a bad year last year, but it was as much about the new receivers and yes, at time poor protection, as it was about Brady declining. I think his stats will rebound this year because the receivers will be better and that will in turn make things easier on the line and Brady.