Patriots receiver Kayshon Boutte wins the battle for a TD catch vs. Saints corner Kool-Aid McKinstry during Sunday's game in New Orleans. (AP photo)

The New England Patriots are learning to walk before they run – or at least that’s what the plan was.

Well, they may still need help with the run part – on the field, that is – but a third of the way through the season, those expectations are certainly raised and it’s more of a brisk walk, isn’t it?

And they’re setting the pace in the AFC, because the competition is starting to get thin – and we’re not talking about the remainder of their powder puff schedule. After Buffalo’s loss on Monday night to Atlanta, they are the first-place New England Patriots in the AFC East.

The power brokers of the AFC are no more. Kansas City looked good against a contending Detroit team Sunday night, but that still only gave the Chiefs a 3-3 mark. The Baltimore Ravens are 1-5 and they won’t get much better the rest of the way, it seems. The Bills are the only one of that power triumvirate that is keeping up its end of the bargain, but the Patriots already own a win there.

It’s early. But the Chargers, Broncos, Steelers, and even the Colts despite surprising success don’t quite strike fear in the hearts of the league.

In other words, there are several flawed teams with winning records, a few who may not have them in two months or so.

What are we saying? That the Patriots are now part of a crowded group that are in an AFC free-for-all. And given their schedule, you can start to dream about not only playoffs but also a decent seed. Yes, we’re going there, unless the injury bug strikes hard.

“This league is designed to be, and used to be, an 8-8 league, and now it’s a 9-8 or 8-9 league,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. “That’s how the system’s set up, and so we have to do things through the course of the game and the season that skew that, that move those numbers in our favor.

“I think that there’s a good balance that can be had from these guys still knowing that they can play better and they can do some things.”

They may be able to do more, given the competition – and lack of it in the regular season – than anyone thought going into this season.

The Patriots have flaws, as we all know. But the thing is, so do so many other winning teams in the AFC. That’s the point.

So what will cause separation? The one thing that New England has traditionally relied on: the level of compete.

These Patriots, under Vrabel, has shown a level compete that hasn’t been seen in Foxborough for quite some time. That compete level has boosted Patriot teams in some past years even with Tom Brady at QB, especially the first victorious Super Bowl team of 24 years ago. Even the 2021 team with Mac Jones as its QB did a lot of that.

However, the Patriots aren’t a deep team, especially defensively – and in the running game. One injury, the season-ender to Antonio Gibson – looks like it’s already having an impact. TreVeyon Henderson has not been the breakaway threat we all thought he would be, but again, in the NFL we feel he translates more into the role of a third down back where he gets he ball in space right away. But the running game can’t put up the putrid numbers it did this past Sunday vs. the Saints and expect this team to continue its winning pace.

The idea that the Stevenson and Henderson are afraid to fumble, well, that just doesn’t fly.

“I know when we don’t turn it over, we’e won those three games, so there’s certainly a balance there,” Vrabel said. “And we have to give them a good plan, we have to block and execute that, block support, and then we have to run, make peple miss and break tackles. We’ll work hard on that. …”

With winning Patriots teams, things always seemed to break their way. That may be true for this team, as they’re headed to Tennessee on Sunday to face a Titans team in complete disarray, having just fired head coach Brian Callahan. And wouldn’t you know, Vrabel used to be the former Titans coach.

“There is going to be, probably a lot to b said about this,” he said Monday before the Callahan news came out. “I think it would file under the category of is it interesting or important?”

He chose interesting. Vrabel takes nothing for granted, and wants his team to be the same way.

“It’s a tough league to win in,” Vrabel said. “A tough league to win consistently in on the road, and the numbers for the history will tell you that.”

We’ll see in a few months what history

ultimately says about these Patriots.

This week’s rankings:

AFC

1 Pittsburgh (4-1). 2. New England (4-2). 3.Buffalo (4-2). 4. Denver (4-2). 5.Indianapolis (5-1).

NFC

1.Tampa Bay (5-1) 2.Philadelphia (4-2). 3. Detroit (4-2). 4. Green Bay (3-1-1). 5.San Francisco (4-2).