Second-year wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk was again not part of the action for the New England Patriots on Friday, which, given the spirit of the session, was certainly puzzling.
Mike Vrabel said prior to practice that the plan was to just put the players through a walkthrough, which should have seen most everyone participate.
Apparently, with Polk, that wasn’t the case.
Instead, he wasn’t part of practice again as the team worked on some situational scenarios, marking the third-straight day he hasn’t been able to be out there. ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported on Thursday that Polk’s issue stems from “muscle tightness” and the team was being cautious in its approach with the young wideout.
Vrabel was asked directly about Polk on Friday, and the head coach said that the hope is that for any player who isn’t out there, that he’s at least taking in the information for when he does get back on the field.
“Well, I mean, there’s a lot of ways around being out here at practice,” said Vrabel. “I think that everybody, whether that’s a first year, second year, 10-year, we think that practice is important, but obviously, there’s circumstances around being out here and not being out here and how you can stay up with the installation at the beginning part of camp.”
“There is installation. It’s a repeat from the spring. So hopefully, any player that’s not out here can stay engaged and continue to learn and get the information that they need, and then be ready when they get back. I think that’s the important thing is focusing on, doing everything, that you can to get back as quickly as possible. But also when you do get back, there’s not a big drop off of information lost when you get back.”
Before things kicked off, Polk was already facing an uphill battle. New England currently has 12 receivers battling for roster spots, and Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald noted before camp started that, despite his status as a second-round pick, Polk might be facing the reality that neither Vrabel nor Josh McDaniels has a history with him. That could potentially put his spot in jeopardy depending on how these next few weeks play out.
Vrabel has expressed multiple times that it’s a clean slate for everyone, and it will be hard for the former second-round pick to rebound if he can’t get on the field.
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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.
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