The Biggest Bust (Harry vs Polk)

[reflexblue]

To clarify, I know a glitch where I can see anyone posts and can tell if they have me on ignore (which aren't many). Now I can receive alerts from you and see posts normally.

I did not know why all of a sudden i could no longer read your posts, it happened last april around draft day 2025

 

[Wozzy]

One year $7.4 million is still not starter money. And if they are giving a 25 year old WR (about to be 26) who has been on the team one year a glorified one year deal, they are not guaranteeing that guy a starting role. It isn't like Thornton is 30 and they aren't willing to commit to a long term deal because of his age.

And Rashee Rice had surgery in May. They are managing him right now. That is why Thornton is getting playing time with the ones.

I never said he got starter money, in fact I said he got a one year “show me” deal. They want to see another year of him impressing as a deep threat to ensure he isn’t a flash in the pan.

None of which changes him running with Mahomes and the ones in training camp.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Jayne, please. There's gold in them thar hills

fify

Google Search

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Harry easily and he showed us how much of a doofus he was on draft night. The Pats were in dire need of outside help for one last run and he was supposed to bring some physicality to the position. He got injured in a preseason game and really had no desire to get on the field as quickly as possible. It was a 4-5 week recovery time that took him 9 weeks to make his debut. He was completely lost when he did and it was clear Tom Brady didn't like him. I've never seen Tom laugh in disgust like he did with Harry when he made a mistake. Then Harry told a reporter he didn't feel any pressure to perform as a 1st round pick. He was a turd.

The drafting of him alone over Samuel, Brown, Metcalf et al. was one of the straws which eventually broke Tom's back and made him leave.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Jalynn to retire after playing 1 season, N'Keal aint looking so bad by comparison...

Should NOT impact our trade compensation.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/49515016/saints-place-wr-jalynn-polk-24-reserve-retired-list

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uktrendzone.com

Not his fault, and this set the Chiefs up for HFA and ultimately knocked the Patriots out of it.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

We aint out of WR drafting hell just yet.

Williams needs to make big gains this year or he will be another bum.

The few plays he made were huge, even crucial. I can't forget them.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Hart Lee Dykes broke me. Ian was my paper boy back then. Foster's Daily Democrat out of Dover. Ian sometimes hit me in the side of the head for the then afternoon delivery.

1989, #16.

Of course, Flutie still would have made him look good.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Nice uniform.

 

[upstater1]

There was a lot of praise of the Polk pick at the time. Evan Lazar had him as the 24th best player in that draft. Walter Football gave the Pats an A grade for the pick. SB Nation gave the pick a B+ grade. Phil Perry gave it a B grade. So did Bleecher Report.

RAS Football gave him a 9.11 grade.



A lot of people liked the Polk pick at the time. Probably more than people liked Harry in the first. Few were saying they would rather have Ladd McConkey than Polk because McConkey was not rated where he went either. A lot of people were saying the Pats should have taken Deebo Samuel or AJ Brown over Harry.

We remember things 100% differently.

I forget who it was, but there was one poster here who HATED the Harry pick, and he called everyone out by reposting the Harry draft day thread. This place was 99% positive on taking Harry that day.

Polk had immediate detractors. Heck, I posted 3x on Polk starting in the draft threads in January, long before I even knew the Patriots would pick him.

The point stands however that most people thought Harry was going right where the Patriots took him:



LaCanfora had him at 22: 2019 NFL Mock Draft by Jason La Canfora (CBS) | NFL Mock Draft Database

By comparison, this is J'Lynn Polk:



This is AJ Brown:

 

[upstater1]

By the way, this is what I wrote about Polk BEFORE the draft here, April 17, 2024:

BUST PREDICTIONS: "J. Polk from Washington. He just plays weak out there and doesn't seem to show much effort going for balls. I question everything about him, including his hands. On a team with 3 receivers, someone was going to be open."

 

[Zuma]

Nice uniform.

In the 70’s

 

[Tunescribe]

This is one of those topics where you have to be seeking misery to care at this point.

Absolutely. I hate this preoccupation some seem to have with "what's worse than bad," especially on the eve of a new season.

 

[Joey007]

I've been around long enough to remember all those guys well.
I saw more from KW in very limited action than all those guys, not giving up hope yet.
Dobson was actually decent his rookie year.
One important discriminator, KW is the only guy of that bunch drafted while Vrabel was here.
All the others were BB specials, save the Polk/Baker double dip by Wolf.

I would argue Tate had very fun moments. Same with Dobson as you mentioned in his rookie year.

 

[patfanken]

The real failure in the Polk evaluation was not his physical abilities but not being able to determine that the kid simply did not like to play football enough to endure the kind of mental commitment needed to play the marathon that is an NFL season. You HAVE to love the game to play at that level and he clearly didn't. He packed it in when it started to get real in the Saints training camp. Doesn't make him a bad guy, BUT it was the job of the evaluators to see through the canned answers the agents teach these kids to say in their interviews.

But the truth is, you don't always know. If it were easy then success rates on the draft wouldn't be 50%, it would be 80%. Polk was a bad pick that turned into a 6th round pick next season. Let's see what we get in that supposed "loaded" draft We've had some success in the 6th in the past. (Brady, Boutte,) who knows.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I don't think it is the predraft work.
I think it is the offense, the coaching and at times the QB

After watching Polk, I don't see how anyone can draw this conclusion.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

The real failure in the Polk evaluation was not his physical abilities

Polk's physical abilities played a huge part in his failure. I am not sure what this means.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Harry is officially ancient history - 7 drafts and several QB's & HC's ago.

The way I look at Polk, the miss on McConkey, and other mistakes of the past few years is that we needed the back to back 4-13 seasons to reset. Had Polk succeeded or had we taken McConkey, there probably wouldn't have been a SB last year or be in prime position this year. We've successfully navigated the troubled waters, and the mistakes contributed to that.

I agree, but now the Kyle Williams pick is not building confidence that the WR evaluation failures are only in the past.

 

[rkarp1]

The real failure in the Polk evaluation was not his physical abilities but not being able to determine that the kid simply did not like to play football enough to endure the kind of mental commitment needed to play the marathon that is an NFL season. You HAVE to love the game to play at that level and he clearly didn't. He packed it in when it started to get real in the Saints training camp. Doesn't make him a bad guy, BUT it was the job of the evaluators to see through the canned answers the agents teach these kids to say in their interviews.

But the truth is, you don't always know. If it were easy then success rates on the draft wouldn't be 50%, it would be 80%. Polk was a bad pick that turned into a 6th round pick next season. Let's see what we get in that supposed "loaded" draft We've had some success in the 6th in the past. (Brady, Boutte,) who knows.

the interesting part about drafting Polk, is that his WR coach, T Hughes, was also on the offensive staff at the U of Washington in 2023. So Hughes had intimate knowledge on Polk. and the 3 seasons prior to being at the U of Wash, Highes was an offensive assnt under Bill.

 

[rkarp1]

After watching Polk, I don't see how anyone can draw this conclusion.

my comment was not about Polk specifically. it was in response to why the team cannot identify WR's in the draft, and that they should poach some one from another staff.
take someone like Harry. he was a physical beast and a mental midget, playing with a Rhodes scholar QB like TB
or someone like Polk. he played in an offense with inarguably the 32nd ranked OC that season, with a position coach that was never an nfl WR coach, and a QB that was inaccurate and unable to make every throw

 

[stinkypete]

Have to go Harry.

Polk was a disaster, but the team recovered quickly.

I'll always associate Harry's drafting as the straw that broke the Brady era's back.