The New England Patriots are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work this offseason, determined to shake off the dust of back-to-back 4-13 seasons. With Mike Vrabel stepping in as the new HC and a fat $130M in cap space to play with, big changes are definitely coming. Plus, Eliot Wolf, the guy calling the shots on the roster, isn’t sugarcoating anything either. He straight-up admitted the mistakes and is ready to turn things around.
But amidst the buzz of potential signings and draft picks, the Patriots also have to deal with the homegrown talent. Say Ja’Lynn Polk, for instance. When the Pats signed him with the 37th overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, they thought they might’ve got someone who can torch defenses and rack up yards. But the rookie didn’t even offer them 100 yards. However, Wolf believes a full offseason with Vrabel and OC is what Polk needs to hit the reset button.
“He’s going to continue to work hard and rehab and do the things that are necessary to improve,” he said. You see, Polk showed his potential in the previous offseason. You can just say it was strong enough that the previous coaching staff pushed him right into the fire early. The guy started 5 games between 2-6 weeks, but from there, his role started shrinking.
Polk suffered a concussion in week 8, and even though he was active later, the team barely involved him. In the final eight games of his rookie season, the former 37th overall pick just tallied two passes for nine yards on seven targets. His poor performance was followed by a shoulder injury in week 18 and he had to miss out on the final game of his rookie season.
However, if you’re tracking the Patriots lately, y’all must know that Eliot Wolf is doing many things to build the roster, but he is surely admitting the previous mistakes of the team. And that’s exactly what he did when it comes to Ja’Lynn Polk. Wolf admitted at the NFL Scouting Combine that the team might have overloaded Polk early in the last season, which led to his struggles.
“I hate to use this analogy, but you know in The Dark Knight when it’s ‘The hero you need isn’t the hero that you have?’ Wolf said via Pats Pulpit. “He was a young player that came in and he’s mature, he’s smart. I think organizationally, we maybe put too much on his plate early. I think that really kind of stunted his growth a little bit. He’s aware of that, and we’ve talked about it.” With Josh McDaniels back to New England as an OC this time, Polk might get a start he was hoping to get in the last season.
Besides, the team’s also looking to build the wideout crew for the 2025 season in the free agency or the draft.
Travis Hunter forced the Patriots to take a different approach
The Patriots have the No. 4 pick in this year’s draft and they’re probably going to draft a wide receiver. Travis Hunter of the Colorado Buffaloes is expected to be a fourth overall pick for the Patriots in April. The kicker? Or should we say, the issue? Well, Hunter plays both cornerback and the wide receiver. As the NFL Scouting Combine is on the run, the team faced certain challenges to write a report on Hunter.
But, the 21-year-old Colorado star forced the team to adapt its scouting methods. That said, Eliot Wolf later explained that this year, the team’s working off of two separate reports on Travis Hunter. “Not to give anything away, but Matt Groh actually wrote two separate scouting reports on him when he went to Colorado this year. He has one wide receiver report and one corner report,” Wolf said in an interview with Mike Dussault and Evan Lazar of patriots.com.
“Now, he’s the only one who did that; everyone else kind of tried to jam everything into the space that we have. But it’s tough when you’re talking about a player who does so many different things to fit it all in there.” Now, here’s the deal: the Pats already have Marcus Jones (who’s also a two-way player) on their roster this year who’s a starting CB.
But Hunter is a total beast when it comes to his dual-role. Take his 2024 junior season, for instance. The guy finished his season with four interceptions and a forced fumble as a starting CB. Additionally, he also recorded 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns as a starting WR.
Though we are yet to see how the Patriots and other teams think about his overall contributions but Travis Hunter is sure that he can play at both positions. “They say nobody has ever done it the way that I do it, but I tell them I’m just different, I’m a different person,” Hunter said during the Combine. “I know I can do it. There are a lot more breaks in the NFL.”
As the NFL draft approaches, Mike Vrabel and the Patriots are surely on a quest to build a roster that can turn the tables in 2025. We just have to see how they are going to use their No. 4 overall pick in the draft.
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