Hands off: Ja’Lynn Polk isn’t the problem for Patriots, it’s the people who brought him here
Instead of doing more to protect Drake Maye, the Patriots drafted a rookie wide receiver who couldn't seem more lost.
COMMENTARY
Don’t be frustrated with New England Patriots wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk. Instead, question the architects who thought him to be a more important piece than a player who could ultimately protect the team’s most important draft pick in 30 years.
It’s unfair to label a kid a “bust” only seven games into his professional football career, so maybe it’s less harsh to suggest that Polk might not be making the best decisions.
Polk put a target onto his back last week by declaring he had the best hands in the NFL, giving thirsty defensive backs a tall drink of water, as if they need any, to play the putrid 1-6 Patriots. Following Sunday’s disastrous performance in London, where Polk displayed his trademark drop three times before quarterback Drake Maye gave up on him, the discussion has become less about the struggling player and more about why he’s even here to begin with.
Polk was a second-round pick, 37th overall, in last spring’s NFL Draft. By the time he was selected, eight of Pro Football Focus’ top 10 tackles in the class of 2024 had already been taken in the first round.
The Patriots had holes at pretty much every position, so you can’t really argue that they weren’t drafting for need with the selection of Polk. But after taking Maye third overall, then watching the best linemen go quickly off the board, the Patriots should have considered two options:
1. Trade up into the first round to grab one of the elite tackles, or
2. Take the position at 37 to help protect the investment you just made 34 picks ago.
Instead, Patriots GM Eliot Wolf and head coach Jerod Mayo went with a second Jalen Reagor.
New England did select a tackle in the third round, Caedan Wallace out of Penn State. One draft blog suggested that “he could be a backup who grows into a bigger role.”
Cool.
If it was astounding then that the Patriots would go wide receiver over their pressing need to rebuild an offensive line in shambles, we’ve come to learn that it’s only one in a long line of laughable decisions the New Coke Patriots have made — both on and off the field — in the months since. Mayo, gifted the job of head coach for no other reason than the team owner had a nice chat with him on a bus in Jerusalem, has proven to be in way over his head with the talentless roster that Wolf created. The 1-6 Patriots look like a team that has already quit on its head coach. I almost wonder if I blame them.
On Sunday, when the pathetic Jacksonville Jaguars embarrassed the Patriots, Mayo and company started the seventh different combination of linemen — tackles Demontrey Jacobs and Michael Onwenu, guards Michael Jordan and Layden Robinson, and center Ben Brown — over the first seven weeks of the season. At a position where consistency is the spice to everything, having none of it speaks largely to the issue.
There were four offensive tackles selected between Polk at No. 37 and Wallace at No. 68: Houston’s Patrick Paul, who went to the Miami Dolphins at No. 55; Notre Dame’s Blake Fisher, who went to the Houston Texans at No. 59; Washington’s Roger Rosengarten, who went to the Baltimore Ravens at No. 62; and Kingsley Suamataia, who went to the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 63. Not that any of them might have immediately contributed anything positive to the mess the Patriots have managed to put together. But that decision to take Polk, when all the best offensive tackles had been gobbled up, looks even more dubious now.
There were 12 tackles taken before Wallace, the position warranting 18 percent of draft selections to that point. In fact, all linemen consisted of 24 percent of the picks already before the Patriots made their first. They were already behind the competition in any “attempt” to rebuild the position.
The team signed free agent tackle Chukwuma Okorafor to a one-year, $4 million deal. They probably called Dante Scarnecchia about 42 times. Other than that, the offensive line was kind of an afterthought even as it had a bright, neon arrow pointed towards it, emblazoned with “fix me.”
Only one player of the line’s listed starters (Onwenu) was even drafted. Heading into London, the Patriots had given up 16 sacks and 96 pressures. However, Maye was able to find himself in some semblance of a pocket at times on Sunday, which probably says more about him than the protection in front of him. He was sacked twice as the offensive line suffered another loss with rookie guard Robinson leaving the game with an ankle injury. That likely means it will be the eighth different combination of linemen when the Patriots welcome the Jets to Gillette this weekend. Even the Jets can’t lose to this.
None of that is Ja’Lynn Polk’s fault. But the only one who seems stupider than a rookie who can’t catch declaring he has the best hands in the NFL is the guy who drafted him over the Patriots’ need on the line, a position that the franchise has treated like that loose newel that you keep promising yourself that you’ll fix some day.
Wolf has done little to endear himself yet to Patriot fans, who are deservingly edgy in the midst of a rock bottom they never thought they’d see again in Foxborough. But it’s not like he’s alone on the sheet of blame. As it turns out, even if he can’t catch and introduced himself to the league as Muhammad Ali, Polk is far down on that list.
Patriot fans have much larger, long-term concerns to worry about than Polk. They start at the people who brought him here in the first place.
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