Patriots WRs
- Thread starter Zedia
- Start date
I thought I heard (can't find source now, so: hearsay) that as the final part of his rehab, since he's taking blood thinners, he's not doing strenuous physical activity (e.g. practicing, playing) more frequently than every other day. Once he passes this last part of the rehab he'll presumably back back to being cleared for every-day action.
No idea what this means for whether we see him a (limited?) number of downs on Sunday. I'm sorta assuming "not" until we see otherwise. But hard tellin' not knowin'
Belichick's blind spot when it comes to assessing WRs was simply epic.
Polk has some issues, but we've seen more flashes from him in this weird drop prone season than we ever did from TT. 1st and 2nd round picks should be highly likely to at least be starters. Since Branch in 2002, his 1st and 2nd round picks were
Bethel Johnson
Chad Jackson
Aaron Dobson
NKeal Harry
Tyquan Thornton
Plus Taylor Price as a 3rd rounder for good measure
Whole lot of ugly. Thank god for the former QB he drafted in the 7th round 2009.
FWIW, for all the talk of the Pats lack of quality in the WR room, I firmly believe you add a Tee Higgins level WR1 here, and slot everyone down a spot, and it gets much better much more quickly.
1 Higgins
2 Boutte
3 Douglas
4 Bourne
5 Polk
This is a very credible top 5, and allows you to go OT in rd 1.
1 Higgins
2 Boutte
3 Douglas
4 Bourne
5 Polk
This is a very credible top 5, and allows you to go OT in rd 1.
Pickens is like 5% defensible to me because of the character concerns. Skyy Moore epically busting too doesn’t hurt either. Obviously wish they could have that one back - probably in the top 5 most impactful bad draft decisions of Bill’s run - but it’s not close to as bad as the ones ahead of it to me.
George Pickens doesn't feel like a player who would do well in New England even under the best of circumstances (we know 100% now that Tomlin is good with difficult personalities). Like not with the staff, the media or the fans. He would likely have a pretty spicy thread here too. I'd say that he was basically not draftable for certain teams and the Pats are one of those clubs.
they’re in the same position as last offseason more or less
their solution was KJ Osborn, re-signing Bourne and reaching for a low upside Polk.
I don’t know that we should expect them to really do much to substantially improve the unit. But I’m sure we will hear that they made “strong offers” for guys who land elsewhere.
Another overreach and bad pick by BB but you could argue that his QB (Mac Jones) couldn't throw deep and that's Thornton's main potential value. Drake Maye can but still, I haven't seen deep balls to Thornton. Why not? I'm sure the Pats had plenty of reason to cut him but as a fan, I just don't get why they didn't at least try deep balls to a tall receiver with great speed. Quick slants too - get him the ball fast and let him run.
This is the problem — the NFL isn’t just a track meet. The Thornton pick was too cute by half, reaching for a burner who was always a long shot to be a productive, reliable WR at this level when Pickens was on the board. And why didn’t they try to hit Thornton on deep balls?
Well, they did. And, uh, yeah:
View: https://youtu.be/bFb6mw6K_b0?si=_a8h4jCMSZgKLINQ
Look at his NFL draft profile weaknesses:
He's a massive shithead and there's no doubt in my mind he would have busted here.
Have to admit that he and Mac would have been a hilarious duo together though.
Bill didn’t draft Mac Jones, not his fault at all, the Krafts made him. Mike Lombardi told me it’s true! I don’t know if Lombardi said that but I just assume he did.
That entire list came true. How often does that happen that a team literally cannot coach out even one of the evaluated weaknesses?
edit: honestly it’s like BB just intentionally lit money on fire. “You want me to draft a WR? I’ll show you… I’ll draft the crappiest one and he’ll absolutely flail, and then you’ll never ask me again. Fxxk you.”
I have to admit, there have been times I felt like that must have been what BB was doing in that draft.
Is Polk usable going forward? I guess if you know you are not making the playoffs you should play him but man, he’s just brutal. Plus how bad is Baker?
Yeah I don't understand how they can't get Baker on the field. Looked great on the opening kick off return then nothing? Maye is forced to bring knives to a gun fight week in week out.
If you use Polk as a base line - can't get open, can't catch, and a penalty generators - wouldn't you think there's potential upside in literally every other WR on the roster? Why not try Baker, or one of the two guys on the practice squad, or WRs on other practice squads?
If Mayo isn't even going to attempt to win the games he coaches, he may as well treat them as tryouts to see if he can find a capable receiver?
If Mayo isn't even going to attempt to win the games he coaches, he may as well treat them as tryouts to see if he can find a capable receiver?
Because Polk was their 2nd round pick, and earlier in the year he was getting open and catching it. He also usually runs the right routes. There is a case to throw Baker out there a bit too, but benching Polk is a panic move that makes no sense given the investment in him, how early it is, and how limited the other WRs on the roster are. Polk's upside is good #2... Bourne/Boutte/Osborn don't have that, and Douglas is a small slot only player. It certainly sounds like reading between the lines that Baker doesn't play because he practices poorly and doesn't know the playbook, Polk does play because he does well in practice/study and they are trying to figure out what the hell goes wrong when he hits the field for real.
Sorry, but...the guy who catches less than 40% of his targets and averages less than 3 yards a target has an upside of a "good #2?" While running "the right routes" and "getting open and catching it?"
Man, if that's an every-down started at WR, things are very tough in NE now.
He's a prospect, he's been really bad the last 5-6 weeks, but benching him now is like calling a guy up from AAA, he goes 1-22 in a weekend series and you DFA him
Yeah, the Pats clearly aren’t going anywhere this year. The only argument for benching Polk is if it’s going to harm Maye’s development to have Polk out there over someone like Bourne.
Might as well play him and see what they have. I have to think that Polk will be here for one more year at least. It would be rare to give up on an early 2nd rounder so soon
Baker muffed a kickoff standing in the end zone, and he fumbled the ball into the field of play. He hesitated, and was smacked down deep in Pats territory. It was a boneheaded play that got him a seat on the bench. The next kickoff saw Gibson and Hasty back deep. Blech.
I don’t know why they even have Baker returning kicks. He never did it in college and I don’t remember him doing it in preseason.
I think there's an argument to be made that Polk is pressing so much that the compounding mistakes week after week could harm his development. Maybe he needs a mental timeout.
I guess they could just have Polk inactive week by week, and start...Osborn? Baker? The trouble is that his backups are trash or young too, so options are super limited.
I think starting Osborn is fine, he'd very likely contribute more and he plays a similar role. As for Baker I don't have any clue if he's anywhere near ready yet.
People are so willing to throw Polk to the wolves, but he's a rookie you invested in. If Maye has a bad stretch of games and you bench him, people would think you were fucking with his confidence. That's true for WRs, too.
So far, blech results. But this is a bottom 5 team, so he gets plenty of rope this season. Less rope next.
So far, blech results. But this is a bottom 5 team, so he gets plenty of rope this season. Less rope next.
I would give Polk leeway but that's a two way street. He needs to show maturity (stay out of it on social media) and, critically, improvement. He's out there making mistakes way too often. And it seems to be compounding from where he was earlier in the year. This is the highest level. Cant just be rolling a guy out there that's detrimental to the team (and your QBs development) for the sake of it.
Question about the bolded part: what has Polk posted on social media that doesn't show maturity?
I just went and looked at his Twitter account and he has two posts since July. One of the WR group hyping each other up before a game, and the second of him seeming to make a difficult catch between two defenders on the sideline (the refs ruled it an incompletion)
What am I missing?
Yeah, and it’s not even really about Polk for me. They had McConkey sitting in their laps and they clearly misevaluated him. He is on pace for 1,045 yards and looks really good. He obviously wouldn’t have that here but, man, watching him last night hurt.
He had an Insta story after the not getting 2 feet in play