Following what appeared to be a promising start for New England Patriots wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk, the former Washington receiver ended up with a disappointing rookie season.
Polk caught 5 of his first 6 targets over his first three games, with the young receiver hauling 31 yards along with a touchdown to kick of his rookie campaign.
But from there, Polk caught just three passes on his next seven targets the next week against San Francisco, and just one on six targets the following week for 13 yards against Miami. He also caught just one on 4 targets the week after that in what turned out to be Drake Maye’s first NFL start.
The total over that span turned out to be 10 catches on 23 targets for 78 yards and his touchdown. Over the course of the remainder of the season, he caught just two passes on 10 targets for 9 yards along with another touchdown.
That finished off his 33 targets, 12 reception, 87 yards and 2 touchdown regular season final total.
Clearly, at some point after those three games, something happened, with Polk struggling from a “mental” standpoint. After those first few weeks teams were certainly keying in on him a little more, and while the results were what they were, it’s tough to say just how much of what he was dealing with really was mental vs physical.
Eliot Wolf said something ahead of the scouting combine that inferred it may have been mental, saying that the club may have put too much on his plate to begin the year.
“I think … I hate to use this analogy, but you know in The Dark Night when ‘it’s the hero you need isn’t the hero that you have?’ He was a young player that came in and he’s mature, he’s smart,” said Wolf. “I think organizationally, we maybe put too much on his plate early, and I think that really kind of stunted his growth a little bit. He’s aware of that, and we’ve talked about it, and he’s going to continue to work hard and rehab and do the things that are necessary to improve.”
Polk did sustain an injury at some point last season, with the rookie being listed on the injury report with a shoulder injury ahead of their Week 18 finale against the Bills. Polk didn’t practice that week and missed that contest, and according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Polk is coming off of surgery and has been spending his offseason so far rehabbing.
With his rookie season now in the rearview, Polk has reportedly been hard at work this offseason. Following the addition of Stefon Diggs last week, one other question was whether or not Polk would continue wearing the “#1” next season, which was previously Diggs number.
However, Diggs put that talk to bed. He said on social media that he has no intention of taking the number, and that he’s confident in Polk turning the corner next season.
“Nah, we ‘on’t do that & young boy boutta have a good year … believe in ’em,” wrote Diggs in an Instagram Story via Mike Kadlick.
During his first press conference with the team last week, Diggs sounded like he was looking forward to embracing his role as a leader in the receiver room. One thing he mentioned was the fact he’s faced his own adversity, and the goal just simply has to be to keep putting in the work and be sure to take advantage of every opportunity.
“Everybody wants to play at a very high level. But I feel like I can help more so with the lows just because I’ve experienced them myself on a personal level,” said Diggs. “Like, my first three games in my career, I wasn’t playing at all. It wasn’t until the fourth game when I got my opportunity and then taking advantage of opportunities and learning that sometimes the timing is off.”
“When it’s your time to shine, shine. And if you don’t, you can’t blame nobody but yourself.”
Now it’s up to Polk to hopefully do what he needs to in order to get back on track and shine along Diggs in 2025.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
I’m always amazed at how fans often condemn players in their rookie years if/where they are not playing like veterans right away. Many condemn them at time of the draft!!! Polk seems to have some talent. Not sure on his speed, but his blocking was solid last year and that I assume kept him in there more than deserved. Many rookies take 2-3 years. Some transition right in year one. Don’t write off Polk or Caeden Wallace, or a Cole Strange. Strange has proven he can play, but not proven durable. But Wallace, Polk etc are all TBD. Javon Baker… Read more »
I agree, I’m not ready to throw in the towel on him. It’s interesting when you look at how he played those first few weeks, compared to how things went from there. I sort of wonder if having a player like Diggs taking the pressure off him coverage-wise might allow him to get back to being productive and working his way out of whatever funk he was in. Having also watched a couple of his games in college, I just feel like he’s absolutely better than he showed. Although, at the same time, people will likely forever tie him to… Read more »