Some Patriots news and notes on this Friday:
This is certainly going to be a competitive New England Patriots training camp, and one area that remains curious is going to be how things play out with this group of receivers.
One player in particular has even more riding on how he performs when things kick back off just over a month from now.
Second-year receiver Ja’Lynn Polk is going to have plenty to prove when he hits the field in the coming weeks, especially coming off what was definitely a disappointing rookie season. He was highly touted by both analysts and the team’s front office, but things didn’t quite pan out for him in what was a difficult year all around offensively for this football team.
What’s crazy about Polk is that he actually kicked off 2024 with a fair amount of momentum. Polk caught 5 of his first 6 targets over his first three games, with the young receiver hauling 31 yards along with a touchdown to kick off his rookie campaign.
But from there, Polk caught just three passes on his next seven targets the next week against San Francisco, and just one on six targets the following week for 13 yards against Miami. He also caught just one on four targets the week after that in what turned out to be Drake Maye’s first NFL start.
The total over that stretch turned out to be 10 catches on 23 targets for 78 yards and his touchdown. He was also one of just two receivers (K.J. Osborn) to have a red zone reception over that span, and the only one to score a touchdown.
Over the course of the remainder of the season, he caught just two passes on 10 targets for 9 yards along with another touchdown.
That finished off his 33 targets, 12 receptions, 87 yards and 2 touchdowns regular season final total.
Clearly, at some point after those three games, something happened. After those first few weeks, teams were certainly keying in on him a little more, and while the results were what they were, it’s tough to say just how much of what he was dealing with really was mental vs physical.
Polk did sustain an injury at some point last season, with the rookie being listed on the injury report with a shoulder injury ahead of their Week 18 finale against the Bills. Polk didn’t practice that week and missed that contest, and Mike Reiss reported earlier this offseason Polk is coming off of surgery and has been spending his offseason so far rehabbing, which was evident by what we saw from him in minicamp.
But while Polk’s been limited, the train has kept moving forward, and he’s going to be in an interesting spot in the coming weeks. This offseason has seen the addition of Stefon Diggs, Mack Hollins, along with the drafting of Kyle Williams. To go along with that, undrafted free agent Efton Chism III has already made noise and seems to have a plan to make his own roster push.
Ja'Lynn Polk
(PHOTO: Kris Craig/The Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
That’s essentially four new faces that are now in the mix, all of which appear to be potentially part of the group that we’ll see on the 53-man roster in September.
Demario Douglas, is likely the 5th name who will also be there, with Douglas having quietly finished with 66 catches for 621 yards and 3 touchdowns last season.
Polk is likely in the bottom group, battling against Kayshon Boutte and Kendrick Bourne for that sixth spot, and it’s tough to say if they’d go with seven, given their other needs.
That’s where things get interesting. It sounds like, based on what Adam Schefter hinted at a while ago, the club viewed Boutte as potentially being expendable this past offseason. With that in mind, it’s possible they explored moving him and didn’t find a taker.
Now the question is, where might that leave Polk?
Given where he is and what’s transpired so far, it’s possible that things could go one of several ways. They could continue to take Polk’s rehab slow, and place him on PUP to begin both training camp and the season to keep him in the fold. However, if he’s healthy and participates in camp, his performance will certainly decide where he ends up.
The problem he’s going to face is seeing both Bourne and Boutte, along with the rest of that top five, go out and have a solid preseason. Bourne feels like he might simply be a victim of a numbers game, with the Patriots likely trying to build a younger core of players for Maye to develop with. If that happens, that will then leave Boutte as the guy battling with Polk for that last spot. Unless, of course, they opt to keep a 7th receiver.
During his rookie year, comments from former head coach Jerod Mayo shed some light on Polk’s struggles. Mayo said during an October press conference that the rookie had to get over what he called a “mental hump,” with those comments coming the Monday following their loss to Houston.
“I think he just needs to get over this mental hump,” said Mayo via Tom Carroll of WEEI. “You’ve got to eliminate the dropped passes. You’ve got to be better at blocking, which he did a great job in college at that and at times throughout the season.
“He just has to continue to grow, and he has to work harder. He has to pay more attention to the details, and we fully expect him to grow into a receiver that’s dependable on run and pass downs.”
In that game against the Texans, Polk was targeted four times with just one reception, which was for four yards in a game where he was in on 65% (43/66) of the snaps.
That ended up being the most playing time he saw over the course of the remainder the season.
Ja'Lynn Polk
(PHOTO: Eric Canha-Imagn Images)
In that game Polk did have a couple of drops, and he disputed Mayo’s claims of his issues being mental and even took it a step further, arguing that he believed he had the “best hands in the league.”
“I believe I have the best hands in the league. So, I feel like my drops, that’s not an issue at all,” Polk saidvia Steven Taranto of CBS Sports. “… I’ve got more confidence in myself than anybody has in me. I just have the mindset of wanting to be the best. So, keep chasing greatness and being the best that I can be.”
That was definitely a bold claim, and how things finished didn’t help his cause.
Does Polk stick due to his status as a second-round pick, which Mike Reiss pondered last week? Or could a so-so camp see them do what they did with former second-round pick Tyquan Thornton and gamble by cutting him and putting him on the practice squad?
The latter feels unthinkable. But many felt Thornton wouldn’t make it through waivers, yet he slipped through and they were initially able to bring him back. With Polk, the hope was that he could be a young player to develop with Maye in the offense, and it’s likely they still feel that way. The biggest problem now is just going to be finding a spot for him on the roster if he doesn’t put up a strong preseason.
Part of whatever decision they make will likely come based on one key point Reiss recently mentioned, which is “assuming he buys in to the “effort and finish” mentality of the new staff.” If he shows up all-in and makes strides in August, that effort and commitment should be enough to make him stick. If he struggles and looks downtrodden, it’s possible they could make that difficult call to make what would certainly be a surprising decision to go the route they did with Thornton.
Head coach Mike Vrabel acknowledged Polk’s injury situation earlier this month, with the hope that the young wideout would be able to make it to camp without any setbacks.
“Well, I just trying to be careful and not have any issues,” said Vrabel when asked about the fact Polk was wearing a yellow pinny. “He had a shoulder procedure in the offseason, and at this point in time, I really would just like to get to training camp.”
“I think we’ve kind of figured out how to practice early on. I mean, you can clearly see that there’s different speeds in how we practice. And early on, maybe that jog through was probably a little faster than what it needed it to be. I just wanted to be careful that they can let him get his looks and operate and function, but just be mindful that this player is working with something, and that’ll be the case throughout the season.”
For now, it’s one of several storylines to watch next month. In an ideal situation, they end up with Polk finally breaking through and loading up a group of players who will be productive for Maye this season. But whether or not that happens is up to the former Washington receiver, who, with Vrabel now running things, is going to need to be up to that challenge.
(PHOTO: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images)
Coming off of Tom Curran’s comments the day before when it came to Maye, Phil Perry apparently wasn’t on board with how his colleague feels regarding his doubts about their young quarterback.
“I’m not positive about the offense,” said Curran Wednesday night during a segment on NBC Sports Boston. “I cannot include the offense as a guaranteed dead mortal lock it’s going to be better because I can’t trust the interior offensive line to a point that I say that’s fine. I can’t trust the wide receivers. I can’t trust that in his second year, a turnover-prone player who too frequently leaves the field, I’ve said this before, with fewer points in the opponent, is somebody that I can definitely say he’s going to be better.”
“Do I presume he’s going to be better? Do I presume he, at some point, is going to be a Pro Bowl-level quarterback? I do. I’m not sure it’s going to happen right away. I know those other things, as much as I can, are going to happen.”.
Perry shot down Curran’s comments, and he just doesn’t understand all the talk about Maye being a turnover machine.
“I mean, he’s just completely wrong, as usual,” said Perry. “When it comes to Drake Maye, we act like the guy was Jameis Winston in throwing interceptions at a rate of two per game. He finished last season with 15 touchdown against 10 picks. His interception rate, Trenni [Casey], was 3.0. It’s not great. Not bad, though.”
“You know who had a 2.9 interception rate in his first full season or his first season, essentially as a starter back in 2001? The guy who was the ultimate game manager, hands-on 10-and-2, just wasn’t going to screw it up for what was a fantastic roster around him. Helped them win a Super Bowl that year as a matter of fact. Tom Brady. His interception rate was 2.9, basically the same as Drake Maye at 3.0. So we have to stop talking about Drake Maye.”
“I know the interception at the end of the Titans game, Beetle [Marc Bertrand] cost them. I know the interception at the end of the Rams game, which his own offensive coordinator said wasn’t his fault, the receiver ran the wrong route, that cost them as well. But we have to stop talking about how this guy was costing them games left and right.”
“They didn’t win because that was the worst collection of offensive talent in the league around him, and he was surrounded by an incredibly inexperienced coaching staff. The talent has gotten better, the coaching staff has gotten better, Drake Maye will be better, too, without question.”
Drake Maye
(PHOTO: David Butler II-Imagn Images)
I listed off all of Maye’s touchdowns and interceptions in this piece yesterday, noting that several of those 10 picks went off receivers’ hands and into the hands of defenders.
However, one other play of note that people keep mentioning was the pick he threw in overtime against Tennessee. But looking at the film shed some light after digging into that final play a little further, and it’s tough to even put that one completely on him.
One side note that happened in that sequence was the fact that Bourne fell down after getting his feet tangled with the defensive back. Prior to that, Bourne had seen the safety stay with him, leaving Boutte alone down the field against his defender.
However, Bourne’s stumble allowed the safety to leave him and ultimately make the interception, and it ended up spoiling what might have instead been viewed as a great throw to Boutte, who had a step on his man downfield. In fact, the odds are pretty good, based on where he was, had Bourne continued to draw coverage, and left Boutte one-on-one, that the ball would have landed right in his hands as he came back across the field for a potentially huge gain.
Instead, Bourne fell down and it set up the turnover. Unfortunately, it also ended a comeback bid in what had been an unbelievable touchdown throw by Maye at the end of regulation to even put them into that position.
Still, Bertand pointed out another issue that is a fair argument, which were the nine fumbles Maye had last season.
“I’m less worried about picks, and I’m more worried about his fumbles,” said Bertrand. “Is he going to fix that problem this year? I mean, that to me is one that should be fixed, and it’s the type of thing that I believe will never be excused with a head coach like Mike Vrabel.”
The other thing people discuss with Maye is the fact he won just one game start-to-finish in his first season, which has been a talking point in recent weeks. Perry went on to add that there were other factors beyond that, which makes that talk a little unfair, but looking at that one total doesn’t exactly tell the whole story.
“Yeah, quarterback wins to me is just a much more complicated stat than I think people want to make it out to be,” said Perry. “You can’t look at one win and say, ‘Bad job, Drake Maye.’ I mean, again, You want to point to the Tennessee interception, go ahead and point to the Tennessee interception. You want to point to the Rams interception, go ahead and do it. The only reason, pretty much the only reason they were in those games to begin with is the guy at quarterback. And so, yes, he made some rookie mistakes in critical moments.”
“I would tell you, even he knows if they don’t have bigger numbers in that ‘W’ column by the end of this season, he’s going to get criticized. I just think we are separating the actual snap to snap performance that we saw from the guy. We’re trying to project out and we’re saying, I’m not so sure about this kid because we’re looking at one number, Beetle, when we should be looking at more.”
Tom Brady and Julian Edelman
(PHOTO: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images)
I added a “This Week in Patriots History” block last week after rebuildingthe archive of the 15,000+ entries posted here over the last quarter century. It’s set up to grab anything written over the same span of current time going back to the beginning, and some of the stuff is certainly interesting to go back and look at.
Back in June of 2014, Julian Edelman had just signed a four-year deal that offseason and was on a mission during OTAs to prove the 105 receptions he had in 2013 were not a fluke.
Edelman was spotted even coming up on the right side of battles with Darrelle Revis, which helped set the tone for what turned out to be a year where he led the team in receptions with 92, and was part of the reason the club went on to win its first title in more than a decade.
That was also the offseason where Vince Wilfork was coming off a torn Achilles, with his recovery going well and the big tackle getting plenty of work in during those sessions.
Wilfork would go on to finish with 47 tackles that season, including a QB hit and an interception. He also had six tackles during their postseason run.
What is a little funny is that both receivers Kenbrell Thompkins and Josh Boyce each made some noise that spring, but neither ended up being much of a factor during the season. Thompkins finished with 6 catches for 53 yards, while Boyce was waived at the end of training camp.
That season turned out to be pretty memorable for obvious reasons, and it’s interesting reading some of what transpired over the years around this time of year. So for anyone who likes to take a walk down memory lane, hopefully it’s been a useful feature.
About Ian Logue
Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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