Patriots training camp battles: End of the road for Smith-Schuster, Thornton? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Editor’s Note: With training camp kicking off next week, Patriots Insider Phil Perry is highlighting key position battles to watch on the practice fields outside Gillette Stadium. Monday’s battle focused on cornerbacks. Next up: wide receivers.
It’s been an issue for the offense in New England for multiple years now, and it seems as though it’s not going away in 2024. The Patriots still don’t have an identifiable game-changer at the receiver position.
But they aren’t completely devoid of talent there. They have loaded the receiver room with rosterable, NFL-caliber pass-catchers.
Kendrick Bourne and DeMario Douglas have shown they can be impactful with their recent performances. K.J. Osborn was signed this offseason after three productive seasons with the Vikings. Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker — second- and fourth-round picks, respectively — are likely to land on the 53-man roster as well.
If all of those players are healthy, that could be the active-roster group when the Patriots close camp.
But if Bourne needs time to continue to heal from the ACL injury that ended his season in 2023… or if there’s another ailment that inhibits one of the other perceived “locks” to make the team… or if the Patriots simply prefer to keep more depth at that position, preventing a player they like from hitting waivers at the end of camp… They could end up keeping another player or two here.
Who has the best shot at rounding out the receiver-room depth chart for new position coach Tyler Hughes? Who has the most to gain with a strong camp, starting next week?
Let’s comb through some names.
The favorite
The hierarchy at receiver beyond the five mentioned above is far from clear-cut at the moment. But from this vantage point, Kayshon Boutte is worth mentioning here.
Boutte recently had underage gambling and computer fraud charges against him dropped, per ESPN, which…
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Author : NBC Sports Boston
Publish date : 2024-07-16 19:00:01
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