Eric Decker was suited up in Patriots blue, white and red on the sideline in their preseason game against Washington last week, but he didn’t see any real action until his first practice with his new team on Monday.

While the former Broncos, Jets and Titans wide receiver made a few impressive catches near the end of they day, the majority of his showing was shaky at best. He dropped three passes from Tom Brady and messed up a couple of his routes.

Not the best first impression to make on a day when Brady hit peak frustration levels. Fortunately, Decker doesn’t have to be told that it didn’t go great.

“There’s no excuses for it. It’s something that I’ve obviously got to address,” he told the media after practice.

Fortunately, and unsurprisingly, Decker’s butterfingers on day one aren’t a unique experience. Former Patriots wide receiver Andrew Hawkins, who played minimally with the team during the 2017 offseason before retiring, took to Twitter to offer an intriguing explanation as to why the team’s newest wide receiver didn’t look like himself.

“From experience, adjusting to the Patriots system has you thinking about what to do SO MUCH, that you lose concentration on routine things. They (Coaches/Players) actually warned me about it ahead of time & told me when it happens “just keep pushing, it happens to everyone.”

Hawkins is approximately the 457th former or current Patriots player to describe just how complicated and extensive their offensive system is compared to most other teams in the NFL. This is nothing we haven’t hear before. Decker himself even insinuated that he was unprepared for it — in part because he underestimated how different it would be from the system that had been in place when he played for Josh McDaniels in Denver in 2010.

“There’s a little carryover. I thought there might be more, but they’ve changed things over the years,” he said.

The wide receiving corp of the Patriots has been hit hard by injury and Julian Edelman’s suspension this offseason, so that may explain why tensions are so high in light of Decker’s rough start. However in reality, he’s a very good receiver who’s more than capable of figuring things out — he just had a difficult first day at work for a lot of demanding bosses.