The Patriots lost two veteran receivers to injuries against the Dolphins last Sunday and Kendrick Bourne won’t be returning to the lineup this year.
Bourne tore his ACL and DeVante Parker was knocked out with a head injury, so the team was left with a wideout group that skews young. It’s not clear how long Parker will be out and the team still has JuJu Smith-Schuster, but quarterback Mac Jones was focused on the less experienced wideouts during an appearance on WEEI.
Rookies Kayshon Boutte and Pop Douglas join second-year player Tyquan Thornton in that group and Jones said he hopes all of them can develop together over the second half of the season.
“Really want them to take advantage of the opportunity,” Jones said. “I’ve seen Boutte play, you know in college, and worked with him early in training camp and in the first game and stuff, and I have a lot of confidence in him. Same thing with Tyquan. Tyquan, he’s from Florida, I’ve seen him play in high school, I’ve seen him play in college, and I’ve been really impressed with what he’s done in the NFL. He just needs an opportunity and I know he’s going to take advantage of it. And I believe in a lot of those guys and, like I said, I want to grow with the young players, like Pop, and everybody and grow with then and see what we can do to kind of build for the future too.”
At 2-6, the Patriots’ hopes to make something of this season are in bad shape. Given how poorly things have gone thus far, it’s not clear who will be part of the plans for 2024 and the results that Jones and the wideouts put together will have some weight in those decisions.
