FOXBORO — Patriots fans are in an unfamiliar position this season.

For the first time in years, they can’t bemoan the lack of talent or production in their favorite team’s receiving corps. And the performance of the Patriots’ wide receivers has undoubtedly made an impact on Drake Maye’s breakout season and the team’s 11-2 start.

Head coach Mike Vrabel said last week that the “strength of our wide receiver unit is in the unit.”

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“I know that that’s hard for a position, especially that position, but everybody’s catching passes, everybody’s catching touchdowns, they’re trying to block when they don’t have the ball,” Vrabel said. “And I understand, and I appreciate that. And so, I remind them of that.

“It’s not going to be just one guy getting 15 or 16 targets every week. I just don’t think that that’s what this is. I appreciate their unselfishness, and I think that that is just a small microcosm of what I want our football team to look like and feel.”

Four different Patriots wide receivers — plus tight end Hunter Henry — have over 400 yards this season. That means five different players on the Patriots’ roster are currently on pace for 500-yard receiving seasons.

Wide receiver Stefon Diggs has been Maye’s favorite target, with 64 catches for 705 yards and three touchdowns, but Kayshon Boutte leads the team with six touchdowns to go along with 29 catches for 481 yards. Mack Hollins has contributed with 35 catches for 440 yards and two touchdowns, and DeMario Douglas has taken on more of a backseat role this year but still has 27 catches for 402 yards with three touchdowns.

“They can’t sit there and key on one guy or say, ‘This is where it’s going.’ I think that’s kind of the way that the group is built,” Vrabel said this week. “Some other years it may be different, but that’s what it is this year, that’s what I think is best for us, and that’s kind of what it’s proven to be.”

That only works with the right players. And based on his reputation from his time with the Vikings and Bills, it’s somewhat surprising that Diggs is part of a group built on that foundation.

But Diggs has been a legitimately strong leader, along with Hollins (another former Bill), for an otherwise young wide receiver group.

“Unselfishness,” Diggs said when asked why the strength of the unit is the unit. “I would never sit up here and act like a robot and act like I don’t want the ball. But, I mean, I could tell you the guy next to me right here and the guy next to him, everybody wants the ball. Everybody wants to play at a high level. And it’s like seven dogs and one bone. That’s why, when you see guys out there and they’re playing at a high level, and they’re treating every play like it’s last, you just don’t know when you’re gonna get it again.

“It’s a lot of guys that can get open and play at a high level. So I just think that it’s unselfish. You’re pulling for your brother. That’s why you see guys blocking downfield for a receiver. You see guys like throwing an extra little block here and there. It’s just because you’re really willing to give for your brother, and really, I mean, you care about him.”

Diggs said the group has a saying: ‘What you gonna do? You gonna stop getting open? You gonna stop catching the ball?”

Every receiver on the roster is going to continue to try to get open on every play and catch every ball that’s thrown to them because “everybody gets a turn.”

“It’s just so many explosive players on the offense on this side of the ball that it’s bound to happen for you,” Diggs said. “You’ll be open. Just continue to get open.

“It’s only one ball to go around. Just make the most of your opportunities. And you see the young kids, young kids been begging for opportunity. They’ve been trying to get out there. They’ve been playing at a high level. So seeing Kyle (Williams) catch tuds (touchdowns) and stuff like that, you kind of started seeing, like, (expletive), it’s gonna turn the corner for everybody at one point.”

Williams, a rookie third-round pick, has contributed two touchdowns this season while catching five passes for 143 yards.

The Patriots take on the Bills this weekend, and for the first time in years, it’s clear that New England has the better receiving options. Some thanks goes to the Bills for trading Diggs away to the Texans before the 2024 season and for failing to re-sign Hollins this offseason.

“I don’t think anybody in the unit cares who’s successful each week,” Hollins said. “It’s just, are we successful as a team? And we don’t even care if the receivers, in general, are successful. Like, is the team successful or not? Like, a win for us is the team being successful. A win for us isn’t somebody went for 100 or two guys went for 100 and we lost. Like, as great as that is for that game, we lost. Like, we don’t want that, and I think that really goes across the whole board, if it’s the tight ends, running backs. ‘Did we win at the end of the game? Great. We’ll take it. Like, we can go get stats some other game.’”

Hollins has seen that as a common thread on winning teams, and he’s been on plenty. He was on the Eagles’ 2017 Super Bowl champion team, experienced two winning seasons with the Dolphins and played on last year’s 13-4 Bills team.

“Any team that’s ever won a Super Bowl, you’ll see guys that did unselfish stuff,” Hollins said. “I feel like it’s kind of rare to see a guy who led the league and receiving, leading the league rusher, you know, the MVP quarterback. Yeah, it happens, of course, but I think that’s rare to get all those things on the team to win the Super Bowl. And if we’re all playing to win the Super Bowl, that shouldn’t be the main thing, is individual stats.”

The Patriots can win the AFC East on Sunday with a win over the Bills. They currently have the second-best odds, behind the Bills, to make it out of the AFC to Super Bowl LX.