FOXBORO — It’s not easy being the new kid on the block, especially when you're a wide receiver trying to learn the Patriots’ offense.

The New England passing game is a complicated scheme, made up of several subtle nuances that can make it tough for a new receiver to get up-to-speed, especially for someone who has been running routes in a different system for the bulk of their professional career. That’s why you have seen veteran pass catchers in New England traditionally splinter into one of two camps soon after they arrive: You either get it (Wes Welker, Randy Moss), or you don’t (Joey Galloway, Donald Hayes, Doug Gabriel).

It’s too early to tell where the relationship between Tom Brady and Chad Ochocinco is headed. While the receiver appears committed to making his New England experience work — he’s restructured his deal to take a pay cut, and throughout camp he has always been one of the last receivers off the field — there are clearly some growing pains. The pairing looked uncomfortable at times in the early stages of last week’s preseason win over Tampa, and at one point, he and Patriots coach Bill Belichick could be seen having a rather one-sided exchange on the sidelines after Ochocinco came out of the game.

“It’s like a machine out there, and I’m the one part that’s not up with everybody else,” Ochocinco told reporters after the game on Thursday. “I got a long way to go, personally. I’m behind the eight-ball tremendously.”

Christian Fauria played with the Patriots from 2002 until 2005 after seven seasons in Seattle, and says it can be very hard for a newcomer to pick up on some of the subtleties of the New England passing game, even for a six-time Pro Bowler like Ochocinco. However, he said there are some common denominators when it comes to succeeding in the Patriots pass offense as a new receiver.

“The first thing you need to do is make sure you know where to line up. Forget about everything else,” said Fauria, who caught 79 passes in 64 regular-season games with the Patriots on the way to a pair of Super Bowls. “Get in your playbook and know where you need to line up on every play. If you don’t know where to line up and you don’t know where you’re going, you cannot be comfortable in the offense. It doesn’t help you, it doesn’t help Tom and it doesn’t help the rest of the offense. The key is knowing where you need to line up.

“Forget about Twitter, Facebook, where you’re going to live this season. You need to know where you line up. From then on, you can get in sync with Tom, because he’s more than a quarterback — he’s really an offensive coordinator on the field. Tom can tell when a guy gets it and when he doesn’t.”

On Thursday, there were times where Ochocinco looked like he got it, and there were times where he looked uncomfortable. On the eight-yard touchdown pass, Ochocinco did a very good job selling the route, allowing Brady’s play fake to be amplified and allowing the Patriots to get the score.

However, there were moments where Ochocinco looked like he had to think before making a move. On one play he was creamed coming over the middle, and on another Brady appeared to force one, as Ochocinco didn’t have much chance catching a high ball down the sideline. In all, he was targeted four times and came away with two catches for 14 yards and the touchdown. 

Fauria has been there before — in both cases — and he says that those issues be remedied.

“There’s nothing worse than breaking the huddle and looking back at Tom and thinking, ‘Holy crap, I don’t know were I’m supposed to go,’” Fauria said. “I know I’ve been in a couple of new offenses, and this is one of the toughest offenses to learn. It’s a tough offense, because it reads as if there are just like a bunch of plays, but there are some really cool things about it — some little nuances — that make it go.”

And when it comes to your relationship with the quarterback, you have to be all-in — even at the risk of occasionally alienating your offensive coordinator.

“When you’re playing with Tom, there’s the play that’s called and the route you’re supposed to run and the way your supposed to run it ... and then there's the way that Tom wants you to run it,” Fauria said with a laugh, adding that was the case with every great quarterback he played with, including Hall of Famer Warren Moon in Seattle.

“If Tom comes to me and says ‘I want you to run it like this,’ you’re kind of left in a pickle. Me, I always ran it like Tom wanted me to run it. I wanted him to know that he could trust me. I wanted to make sure I saw the play the way he saw it.”

Fauria indicated that the basis for some of the success is rooted in the offseason workout programs. Whether it’s working with Brady on an informal basis away from Gillette Stadium, in the offseason passing camps and other organized team activities (OTAs) or in camp, those are the workouts that pave the way for success. It was something Brady touched on Monday with WEEI, saying things were on a “very much [of] an abbreviated schedule this year with practices, lack of OTAs.”

“We’re working to try to speed up the learning curve,” Brady said. “So by the time the regular season starts, we’re where we need to be.”

Ochocinco was acquired on July 28, so he hasn’t had that offseason foundation with Brady, which could be a reason for any struggles he might be having with the New England offense. Fauria acknowledges that abbreviated schedule could hinder Ochocinco's development, but again, that problem can be remedied.

“Get in your book. You need to spend time in the playbook,” Fauria said. “Get there early. Make flash cards. Talk to your coordinator. Grab Tom before practice. Grab Tom after practice. Do what you need to do to make sure you know what’s happening in the offense.”

The good news? According to Fauria, if you have a handle on things, it gets easier from this point forward.

“When camp is over and you get into game planning and out goes that big old phonebook of a manual and you get a nice skinny book telling you what you need to do that week,” he said. “It’s so much easier to try and figure out what you’re going to do that week, but you still need to know the nuances of the offense you’re running. Are you the X? The Y? The Z? What’s your hot read?

“For me, if you know the hot reads and know where the ball was supposed to go, your stress level as a receiver will go way down.”