Stop by Patriots training camp this summer, and it should take just a few minutes to realize there’s a new offense in town.

Deep balls flying, one after another. High-arching, high-velocity passes covering 40, 50, sometimes 60 yards in the air.

The Patriots drafted two cannon-strapped QBs, including their new face of the franchise in Drake Maye. They drafted two downfield targets at wide receiver. They also hired the offensive coordinator responsible behind the NFL’s team leader in intended air yards last season, meaning under Alex Van Pelt, Browns passes covered more distance than any other NFL offense.

That offense is now the Patriots’ offense.

Here are the basics of Van Pelt’s scheme: it’s a run-based system with a zone-blocked rushing attack, movement throws, play-action shots and a fairly standard dropback pass game. Its defining characteristic is the deep play-action pass, which we will explore today.

Maye is built for this type of play and offense.Last season, he posted a 121.1 passer rating on deep throws, per Pro Football Focus, and ranked third in all of college football by PFF’s deep passing grade. He finished 40-of-84 for an FBS-best 1,452 yards, 13 touchdowns and four interceptions on throws of 20-plus air yards. Maye is also plenty mobile and is now trading in a disjointed college offense for a more sophisticated, complementary scheme.

Here’s how that scheme will look:

Standard play-action shots

Let’s begin with the basics.

In a Week 16 win at Houston last season, the Browns opened with a traditional play-action pass involving two outside routes and max protection. The left outside receiver ran a deep post over the middle, while the right outside receiver ran a dig route underneath the post that went parallel to the line of scrimmage about 18 yards downfield. This “NCAA” route combination – post-dig – typically puts a bind on single-high coverages that are typically called on early downs.

The lone deep safety must step up to cover the sorter dig route or fall back to defend the post. Either way, he leaves one receiver in single coverage sprinting through the middle of the field.

That day, Browns quarterback Joe Flacco faked a hand-off and spun around inside a roomy pocket to see two safeties back deep. No matter. Both had been caught flat-footed watching his run fake, which allowed Amari Cooper, running the post, to sprint past the safety on his half of the field. Flacco uncorked a 53-yard bomb to Cooper, and Cleveland was instantly inside the red zone.

This play-action pass is run across the league, and its cousin – the “Yankee” concept – is common to most Shanahan-style offenses. If you ever notice two receivers running downfield on a deep play-action pass, but one receiver runs a deep over route instead of a dig and almost intersects with the post, that’s Yankee. And you can expect to see one play – or both of them – in New England this season.

Bootleg bombs

Another staple of Van Pelt’s system: bootleg play-action passes.

This is a pillar of any Shanahan offense, or Shanahan-adjacent scheme. The quarterback fakes an outside hand-off and wheels in the opposite direction of the run action to throw. Even at 38, cement-footed Joe Flacco found success as a deep-throwing, bootleg quarterback last season. Flacco had played in similar offenses before, but his arm strength shined under Van Pelt.

The same should hold true for Maye, even on the move and throwing across his body.

One example: the same win at Houston, Flacco dropped under center early in the second quarter on first-and-10. He had one receiver flanked to either side, two backs in the backfield and a tight end on his right. The right-handed Flacco stepped right at the snap, faked an outside hand-off and veered back left on a “naked” bootleg with no blockers in front of him.

Flacco stared down Cooper, who ran straight up the left sideline for 15 yards, hesitated, stepped left and then hit the gas again downfield. Meanwhile, the tight end, David Njoku, ran a right-to-left crossing route 12 yards downfield to offer Flacco a safety valve in case he felt pressure, and the opposite receiver raced deep on a post. But feeling no pressure, Flacco fired another bomb, this time a 75-yard touchdown to Cooper, who beat his defender by a step down the sideline and coasted into the end zone.

The Browns, under Van Pelt, attached a few of those sideline double-moves to bootleg throws to take advantage of aggressive corners, especially on early downs. They create time and space for deep throws. Now, who knows whether rookie receivers Ja’Lynn Polk or Javon Baker will pan out. But it’s no accident the Patriots drafted players like them; receivers with plenty of plays just like Cooper’s touchdown scattered across their college tape.

Stretching the sideline

The great trick of NFL football nowdays is the same on offense and defense: pre-snap disguise.

But instead of rotating safeties and faking blitzers, offenses camouflage their attack to attacking defenses in the same ways by changing formations, shifts and motions. In Cleveland, one of their pet concepts was a three-level pass play designed to stretch defenses with short, intermediate and deep routes on the same sideline.

When these routes originate on the same side, it’s referred to as a “Flood” concept. Flacco delivered one of the best touchdown passes of the season on a distant variation of this concept, where the short and deep receivers both aligned to his right pre-snap against Chicago in Week 15, but the receiver running the intermediate route did not. He started in the left slot and crossed most of the field before finally ending up 15-to-20 yards up the right sideline, between the short and intermediate receivers.

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The Patriots, under Van Pelt, should major in pass concepts just like this one. As shown against the Bears, a pass-catcher – often a running back or tight end – first leaks into the flat. Next, the intermediate receiver either runs a crossing route behind him or snaps off a deep out route 15 yards in that same area. Finally, the outside receiver flies downfield on a vertical route, either clearing out coverage or becoming an available deep target.

Flacco hit Cooper – running the left-to-right crosser into the intermediate space – on a perfect throw. He waited for Cooper to sneak behind a dropping linebacker, but not long enough for a nearby corner to intercept the ball. Maye has the ability to fit passes into those types of windows, and read out deep concepts like these.

It may take time to perfect, but the right offense is in place, and the right type of quarterback is now at the controls.