Kyle Williams Is the Patriots' Wildcard
A big-play threat who can make a house call for the Patriots offense in any given week, Kyle Williams has a chance to become New England's secret weapon in the Playoffs. The Patriots haven't used the rookie much this year.
When they do, they have been giving Williams a stage to unlock his big-play prowess.
- Man-to-man as the sole receiver on one side of the formation.
- Working the underneath middle as teammates run off the flat and interior zone defenders.
- Classic man-beaters across the field, catching the ball on the move.
- Quick outs against soft cushions.
- Comebacks against man coverage.
Kyle Williams Receptions in 2025 pic.twitter.com/6oUcM0MIox
— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) December 3, 2025
Speed and skill after the catch is exciting. So are hints of good technical skills and moments where the team schemed the play to feature Williams.
Why isn't there more?
Fans and fantasy analysts spend a lot of time analyzing wide receivers on the basis of separation, catching the football, and athletic ability. Most of the analysis is on footwork, route setups, clean breaks, catching, and yardage as a ball carrier.
The gigantic part of wide receiver play that's beneath the tip of the iceberg is reading coverage.
Here are Kyle Williams' incomplete targets. Many of them are incomplete because Williams and Drake Maye are not on the same page when it comes to reading the coverage.
Kyle Williams' incomplete targets in 2025 pic.twitter.com/er3bBFO2O5
— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) December 3, 2025
Here's a quick breakdown of the clips:
- No. 1: Drake Maye underestimates how much to lead Kyle Williams.
- No. 2: Maye identifies the safety on Williams' side and opts to throw back shoulder. Williams is running a regular fade.
- No. 3: Maye doesn't see the near-side safety as a threat to Williams and throws downfield. Williams cuts the route off and breaks back to Maye.
- No. 4: Maye is off-target due to pressure or expected Williams to break this downfield rather than across the field, which is unlikely.
- No. 5: Maye IDs the CBs leverage inside and expects Williams to break outside, but Williams breaks inside.
- No.6: A high throw.
- No. 7: A high throw.
- No.8: Maye expected a break with a return to the outside, and Williams continued inside.
While I would need to meet with Maye and Williams to know if my assessment of these miscues was 100 percent correct, most of them are obvious. If I am correct, half of these eight incomplete targets are miscues from Kyle Williams and Drake Maye reading the coverage differently.
This is the biggest hurdle for most rookie receivers. Stefon Diggs, Kayshon Boutte, and DeMario Douglas have the experience and skill with this part of the passing game, so it has given Maye and the Patriots the luxury of bringing Williams along slowly.
Still, we could see Kyle Williams become a playoff wildcard for the Patriots. New England could luck into defensive looks where Williams draws an athletic mismatch one-on-one without safety help.
The Patriots could also determine that they can create big spaces for Williams to catch the ball on the run. They may even decide to scheme Williams open with small wrinkles that bait opposing defenses into anticipating something they've scouted, but the added wrinkle leads to Williams earning the ball in space.
Kyle Williams delivering a big play or two per week in January could be the short-term manifestation of his talent. This week's Gut Check is about the long-term.
The Patriots' Offense Is on the Rise
There will be dissenting opinions about this statement. The most common refrain you'll hear: New England has played a weak schedule.
This is true. It's also true that there's enough parity in the NFL that, excluding the very best and very worst teams, the margin between strong and weak is negligible.
Make mistakes against even the weakest teams, and they can beat the strongest teams in any given week. The NFL isn't a league with the equivalent of Ohio State-Kennessaw State matchups for a third of the schedule.
New England is better. The offense is better. Drake Maye is better. Kyle Williams could be on the ground floor of a fantasy bonanza.
Maye is the root cause, but his supporting cast is a factor. Stefon Diggs has proven that he's still a good starting receiver. Kayshon Boutte has shown the promise of a future primary option who can play multiple receiver spots if called upon. DeMario Douglas has delivered big plays from the slot even if he hasn't been featured as a high-volume target collector, as the beat writers in New England predicted.
Douglas probably lost out in that respect due to the emergence of Boutte, Diggs' steady play, and most of all, the ever-reliable Hunter Henry. I can think of worse things for an offense than a slot receiver not earning expected targets because the quarterback is finding open receivers downfield.
A lot of New England's current weapons may be ahead of Kyle Williams in 2025, but it won't be the long-term expectation:
- Henry is 31, and there's a potential out with his contract at year's end.
- Diggs is 32, and there's a potential out with his contract at year's end.
- Douglas will remain a fixture through 2026, but Maye's vertical prowess could continue to limit Douglas' volume potential.
- Mack Hollins is ahead of Williams on the depth cart, but he's 32, and there's also a potential out with his deal at year's end.
- Boutte will remain a fixture through 2026, but he can play all three receiver spots. As promising as he has been as a split end / deep threat, he's at his best as a flanker or big slot.
Kayshon Boutte and Kyle Williams offer New England flexibility if they get rid of Diggs at year's end. Williams has the speed and potential ball-tracking upside to become the primary deep threat at split end.
Williams would allow the Patriots to move Boutte to flanker in place of Diggs -- a more natural fit for Boutte. At the same time, Kyle Williams' skills after the catch make him a viable flanker.
Josh McDaniels may even find it worthwhile to use Boutte and Williams interchangeably at both positions. Depending on how often McDaniels wants to switch the two, it could require a lot of trust in both players to read coverage like Maye. So far, Boutte has been good, but Kyle Williams is still a work in progress.