New England Patriots wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk is putting his brutal rookie season behind him.
Polk, a 2024 second-round draft pick, is focused purely on making the Patriots’ Week 1 roster. He was asked multiple times on Wednesday about learning from last year, but he brushed off the idea that he would take a different approach into the new season.
NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran asked Polk whether he acknowledges that his rookie season didn’t go well.
“I don’t even think about last year,” Polk answered. “We’ve got a new team, the energy is great around here, so I’m here now. I’m stepping forward, keeping faith in the Lord Jesus. He’s been with me the whole entire way. I’m going to keep my faith strong and keep working.”
Polk finished his rookie campaign with only 12 catches on 33 targets for 87 yards and two touchdowns in 15 games.
After Wednesday’s practice, Curran and fellow Patriots insider Phil Perry shared their takes on Polk’s comments.
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“The reason I asked that question at the end, ‘Can you acknowledge that last year wasn’t what you were looking for?’ was there were a number of times he was asked about last season, and he kept saying, ‘I’m not going to do anything differently. I’m doing things as I did them last year.’ And to me, it’s opposite day,” Curran said.
“He was asked the initial question, ‘Was it difficult to not be on the field for the first three, four days of team work when all your other guys were out there?’ He goes, ‘No, it wasn’t difficult.’ It’s just the opposite. I mean, the easy thing to do is to say, ‘God, yeah, I mean, I wanna be out there. I’d love to be out there and thank God I’m out here now.’
“Did you learn anything from last year? What do you bring with you from last year that didn’t work? You gonna do anything different? ‘No, I’m gonna be the same guy.’ To me, again, I’ve said this before, I don’t need guys to open a vein and be inauthentic, but it doesn’t seem as if there’s a level of introspection or cognition that, ‘Jesus, I sucked last year. I’ve got to do stuff way different.'”
Perry echoed Curran’s sentiments, stating that a simple acknowledgement from Polk that he hopes to improve from last season would have gone a long way.
“I would think it’s sort of the first step in becoming the player you want to be, is acknowledging where your faults are and acknowledging when things did not go well,” Perry said. “To me, if you’re trying to solve a problem, what do I know? But to say, I’m not even gonna think about last year? I guess that’s fine. You want to turn the page and you wanna only control what you can control, which is what’s ahead of you, and I get all that.
“But I think what fans would probably love to hear there is, ‘Yeah, I thought about last year a lot, and it has driven me to become a better player and yeah, I had to go through a tough surgery and I had to take some time off, and not only was the summer when I can’t be on the field difficult, but the spring was difficult too because I’m running routes on air and these guys are all out competing on the field.’ I think that’s what you might like to hear.”
Polk is far from a lock to make the Patriots’ roster. New England’s wide receiver room is packed, with Stefon Diggs, DeMario Douglas, Mack Hollins (PUP list), Kyle Williams, Kayshon Boutte, and Kendrick Bourne each expected to be ahead of him on the depth chart.
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