The ball was out of bounds by the time N’Keal Harry rounded his curl and put his eyes on Tom Brady.



The route is probably one of the first that any wide receiver learns how to run. The fundamentals of it are easy to understand. Run to a spot on the field, turn back to the quarterback and catch the ball. But here, in New England, a level of precision is required that changes things.



“I remember those days,” Chad Jackson jokes when thinking back to his early moments in New England as a second-round pick in 2006.



See, the thing is, a curl is no longer a curl – at least not how many players entering the league once thought about it. In college, most quarterbacks aren’t going to throw the ball until the wide receiver shakes the defender and appears open. In the NFL, in a good passing offense, that isn’t how things work. The ball needs to arrive as the player is turning, so, someone like Drew Brees will read his receiver’s...