In New England, the topic of wide receivers has been a sore subject for quite some time.

From drafting N’Keal Harry (ahead of A.J. Brown, Deebo Samuel, and DK Metcalf), to trading for Mohamed Sanu, to entering into the Antonio Brown fiasco, to swapping out Jakobi Meyers for JuJu Smith-Schuster, to drafting Tyquan Thornton and Ja’Lynn Polk in the second round two years apart, it’s been a long run of struggles throughout multiple head coaches and decision-makers.

Add in some up-and-down quarterback play and some sketchy work on the offensive line, and the issues have been compounded.

For now, though, Mike Giardi of the Boston Sports Journal has one question for the receivers who made the roster in 2025: Can they get to league average?

Mr. Stink Stank Stunk himself does have some optimism in that regard.

“It’s a better room than it’s been in a few years,” Giardi said on Early Edition.

Giardi indicated getting to league average is possible, “especially if [Stefon] Diggs is 85, 90 percent of what he was.”

Tom E. Curran added his take on the matter, noting that the mix of Diggs, Mack Hollins, DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, Kyle Williams and Efton Chism presents different skill sets for Josh McDaniels to utilize.

“If you go glass half full, they have a nice complement of players,” Curran said. “Not anybody who’s probably going to be a Pro Bowler, unless Stefon Diggs rolls the clock back a little bit. But to me, you have a nice complement of skills.

“Hollins is a huge individual. Obviously, Douglas is the kind of water bug that the Patriots best utilize when Josh McDaniels is the offensive coordinator. So those are two complementary [players] to Boutte, who I think is a very sure-handed and dependable guy, generally. And I think that Diggs could be good.”

🔊 Patriots Talk Podcast: Digging deep on the Patriots’ roster cuts and keeps | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

While it’s unclear how much progress the pass-catching group can make — particularly with the offensive line still having some question marks — Curran does anticipate the group to represent itself well enough.

“So, yeah, nobody’s sitting around going, ‘Man, I wish we had the wide receivers room the Patriots do,'” Curran said. “But they’re not looking at it and going, ‘They can’t play at all.'”

That may not seem like too much. But in New England, it represents progress.