‘The guys who perform the best play the most,’ Bill Belichick says about Patriots wide receiver logjam

New England currently has seven wideouts on its active roster.

Signing Jalen Reagor from the practice squad to the 53-man roster on Thursday created even more of a logjam in the New England Patriots’ wide receiver room. A total of seven wideouts are currently on the active team.

Reagor joined Kendrick Bourne, JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker, Tyquan Thornton and rookie wideouts Demario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte. With only so many spots available on the game day roster, though, some decisions will have to be made on the team’s part.

For head coach Bill Belichick, those will come down to one simple factor: performance.

“Very competitive situation,” Belichick said about the current wide receiver group. “We have a lot of competition at that position. Everybody’s in, the guys who perform the best play the most. The guys who don’t need to perform better.”

Belichick gave that answer when asked about one particular wideout, Kayshon Boutte. After ranking second on the team in wide receiver snaps but not catching any passes on four targets, the sixth-round draft pick has become a regular game day inactive: Boutte was a healthy scratch every Sunday between Weeks and 6, before missing Week 7 because of a hamstring injury.

With Reagor now joining the active roster and seemingly having surpassed him no the depth chart, the rookie’s path to more playing time has become even more difficult. At the moment, he will remain in de facto redshirt territory.

The question is whether any other wideouts will join him. Bourne and Douglas appear to be save, giving that they are New England’s most dynamic players at the position.

Smith-Schuster, Parker and Thornton, meanwhile, have all had their issues this year. Besides all three missing time due to injury, they also have played a limited role when actually on the field: through seven weeks, Smith-Schuster and Parker have each caught 14 passes for 86 and 144 yards, respectively; Thornton has two receptions for eight yards to his name.

There is still plenty of season left for the three to improve their output, but some urgency might be needed. Not only are the Patriots just 2-5 and facing an uphill climb to make the playoffs, the Oct. 31 trade deadline is also looming large.

On Friday, Belichick did not tip his hand in any direction.

“They’re all competing,” he said. “We have a number of players. Again, it’s very competitive. So, we’ll see how that goes.”