Patriots News 5/5: Expectations Are High For Pats Rookie WR
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Some news and notes on this Monday:
1) Success of Williams Pivotal for Patriots: When it comes to the wide receiver position, it’s probably safe to say that Kyle Williams’ development this offseason is going to play a key role in New England’s success in 2025.
Even more importantly, a productive year by the rookie this fall will hopefully restore some confidence in New England’s ability to draft talent at the receiver position. With a young quarterback like Drake Maye, surrounding him with explosive players who can grow with him is what will give this team its best shot at getting back into the fray in the AFC.
One notable name from the class of 2024 Patriots Draft Picks, second-round selection Ja’Lynn Polk, will be under the microscope as he continues preparing for his sophomore season. After trailing off following a relatively productive four-game start in 2024, Polk heads into this season with a lot to prove in what’s expected to be a competitive receiver room. It remains to be seen whether or not he’ll rebound from last year, but by adding Williams, the New England Patriots already appear to be moving this train forward with or without him.
The third-round selection from Washington State will likely be a player everyone will be watching. Given their issues drafting that position in recent years, it’s no secret that their inability to hit at that spot has played such a big role in their struggles on offense.
After finishing near the bottom of the league in scoring last season, this is a team that focused on changing that during the 2025 Patriots Draft. They added left tackle Will Campbell with the #4 overall selection, and then followed it up with taking explosive running back TreVeyon Henderson at #37, and then Williams with the #69 pick.
The message? Last year wasn’t good enough, and no one on the roster is safe now that the bar has been raised under new head coach Mike Vrabel.
Marcus Arroyo, Williams’ former coach at UNLV, where he played for three seasons before transferring to Washington State, noted that Williams’ work ethic and his love of the game are something that definitely stood out during their time together.
“This guy is all football, he comes from nothing, put himself in position to make the NFL,” Arroyo told ESPN’s Mike Reiss recently. “I can’t say enough good things about the human, the person, the work ethic. In that regard, that’s where we all want to start — someone who loves ball and wants to work his butt off.”
Save for fourth-round selection Malcolm Mitchell in 2016, they’ve had little to no success drafting high at that position over the last decade. The swing-and-miss on N’Keal Harry in round one in 2019 ultimately slammed the door on Tom Brady’s tenure, and you could also make the argument that it began the slide that also ended Bill Belichick’s.
For the most part, in past drafts, defense had been the focus in the early rounds. With Brady here, along with players like Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman (who was an outlier given that they found him in the seventh round back in 2009), you can win with defense if you can score points. If you can’t, you go through stretches like we saw in 2023 where you lose three straight, even after holding opponents to 10 or less.
As it is, the Patriots are coming off a season where they seemingly swung and missed twice at that position a year ago. Polk fizzled out after a few games, and fellow fourth-round pick Javon Baker didn’t really see any significant meaningful snaps until the final game of the season. He had also been 0-for-3 on targets until he made his first NFL reception in that last game against the Bills.
The hope is that Polk might rebound, and he heads into training camp with some perspective and what will hopefully be some better coaching to help him grow ahead of his sophomore season. Baker is viewed as a longshot to make the roster, especially with a crowded group that’s already expected to be incredibly competitive.
Either way, the Patriots need to get better there and the addition of free agent Stefon Diggs at least gives them a veteran playmaker who will set the tone in that room.
However, in today’s NFL, especially considering how expensive that position is and how competitive the free agent market is when those guys do hit the market, the draft is where teams can’t afford to miss.
Hopefully, this time around in Williams, they got this one right.
2) Campbell was the “heartbeat” at LSU: Karen Guregian of MassLive had a terrific piece on Will Campbell, providing some additional insight into the #4 overall selection.
Campbell’s former offensive line coach, Brad Davis, told Guregian that the rookie’s tenacity is something that definitely stood out during his college tenure. Davis explained that Campbell’s practice habits, his preparation, and his work ethic are all things that contributed to his success in getting him ready to play in the NFL, and he expects Campbell to have an immediate impact on the locker room.
“As a rookie, as a young player, he can go in and absolutely change the culture of the offensive line in that organization,” said Davis. “He doesn’t have to go in there and do anything out of the ordinary. He just has to be himself.”
Davis added that Campbell was often one of the first players in the building, telling Guregian that if the players were expected to be in the weight room to lift at 6:30, Campbell would be there at 5.
He called Campbell “the heartbeat of our team,” and said that he’ll absolutely help establish the culture there as Vrabel tries to establish things in their locker room.
“He’s absolutely going to change the organization,” said Davis. “Not to say the place needs to be changed, it’s a real good organization. But I’m going to tell you, this kid is going to make an impact that hasn’t been felt around there in a while.
“He’s special. I’m not making this up because I’m his coach. I’m just telling you who he is.”
3) Belichick situation is a little crazy: Watching that Bill Belichick CBS interview last week, it’s hard not to wonder what was going through Belichick’s head as he sat down to promote his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.”
The former Patriots coach appeared on camera in a beat-up old dark blue “Navy” sweatshirt that also included a big hole just below the collar, and was smiling ear-to-ear as the interview began.
“What’s going on with this sweatshirt?” asked CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil.
“Well, you can see I’ve worn this one for a while,” answered Belichick. He then smiled and said, “No,” when asked if he remembered how he got the hole in his shirt as Dokoupil tried to learn more about the story behind it.
The theme of the shirt seemingly had to do with the fact that the interview was conducted at his old high school, Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis.
Obviously, Belichick thought it would be funny to wear the sweatshirt, but the critics weren’t laughing and jumped all over it.
But the biggest takeaway from that interview is that Belichick remains essentially where he was when he left New England. Defiant of anyone and any criticism, and feeling like he’s doing nothing wrong despite putting himself in the crosshairs given his relationship with 24-year-old Jordan Hudson.
He was asked about that relationship by Dokoupil, which was shut down almost immediately by Hudson. However, why that wasn’t potentially discussed prior to the interview is something that’s hard not to wonder about.
With that in mind, especially given Belichick’s masterful ability to deflect a reporter’s question on his own, it also doesn’t make sense why she was allowed to step up and say anything at all, with Hudson uttering a “We’re not talking about this,” when Dokoupil asked how they met.
CBS seemingly had the option to edit that part out. They decided not to. Prior to that moment, the interview was relatively innocuous, with the biggest quote from it being the question where Dokoupil asked Belichick about the absence of any mention of Robert Kraft in his book.
“I have to ask about Robert Kraft because 24 years together, six Super Bowls, unless I’m wrong, he’s not in this book. How come?” he asked.
“He’s not,” said Belichick. “Well, again, it’s about my life lessons in football, and it’s really more about the ones I experienced directly.”
“He’s not even in the acknowledgements,” responded Dokoupil.
After a long pause, Belichick responded, “Correct.”
CBS let that pause linger, with some uncomfortable moments sitting there following that answer. That was probably the most surprising part of the interview up to that point.
Instead, it was Hudson’s response off-camera as she sat quietly at a desk nearby, listening and watching a screen seemingly with footage from the interview, which has since turned into a firestorm.
According to multiple reports, that interview hasn’t sat well in North Carolina, with Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk reporting that it’s led to Belichick exploring hiring his own PR person to manage a situation that sounds like it might be bad enough to potentially impact his coaching tenure there.
From afar, for those of us who watched him in action for over 20 years, it just looked like Belichick being Belichick. At UNC, they’re apparently not brushing it off. Hudson reportedly played a role in the school losing a deal with HBO, which was set to be on hand to film the Hard Knocks series there. Instead, they reportedly pulled out, costing the University what would have been an incredible amount of publicity. For those of us here who always hoped to get a glimpse behind the curtain with Belichick, seeing that fall through was also disappointing.
Still, the fact that he’s being guided by a 24-year-old who, while extremely confident, still clearly has a lot to learn. Instead of controlling his own narrative, it’s being shaped badly by someone who is definitely providing bad advice.
Having seen him shunned by teams in the NFL, and now seeing all of this unfold, it’s definitely unfortunate. We’re still four months away from the college season getting started, and all of this has taken away from the thing he’s best at, coaching football.
Hopefully, for his sake, that’s where the story will shift back to because this last week certainly hasn’t been his best.
4) Edelman headed to the Hall: The Patriots announced this morning that it will be Julian Edelman who will become the 37th member of the New England Patriots Hall of Fame this summer, with Edelman getting in ahead of fellow finalists Adam Vinatieri and Logan Mankins.
Edelman said on X he’s “Honored and grateful.” And it’s certainly nice to see the former Patriots receiver get the recognition he definitely deserves.
He also had his mom film Edelman’s father as he told him the news, with his father yelling, “Jules made the Hall! Yeah! First ballot Hall of Famer!”
As exciting as it is to see Edelman get in, it’s disappointing that Vinatieri didn’t earn the honor. Considering he was responsible for three massive kicks, two of which came to both force overtime and beat the Raiders in that infamous snow game, and then obviously the game-winner in the ensuing Super Bowl, it’s unfortunate they won’t be inducting him as well this fall.
For now, for a former seventh-round pick who was so instrumental in the second-half of this dynasty, we all knew he’d get there eventually. In the meantime, he’ll join former Patriots coach Bill Parcells, who will be inducted as well, although the date and time have yet to be determined.
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Kyle Williams. Given he could be a “take the roof off” guy at WR, yea he warrants the focus. But rookies rarely walk right into the nfl and are productive right away. . He may need time. If so fine.
Definitely agree, Jim. I think the bigger concern is just that he’ll succeed at this level, at least to the point where he’ll be productive. Obviously, to what end that will be is anyone’s guess. But for the Patriots’ sake, they just need to ensure that number is higher than zero, which has unfortunately been the case as of late.
Yea Ian. Everyone is fawning over the entirety of the draft picks and UDFA’s which is valid and exciting, however many are jumping to tally higher win totals for 2025 (I saw 10). Probably 1/2 of those rookies are going to need a somewhat redshirt year due to injury, the “NFL Leap”, and or learning the Pats systems. Few come right in balling year one, and especially in Sept/Oct. In the bigger picture, there’s so much net changing in coaches, and even new veteran players that all have to assimilate together. Let alone the young guys. It’s more likely than… Read more »