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In Bill Belichick’s two-plus decades at the helm, the Patriots have been sticklers when it comes to playing time.
New England is a place where players have always had to earn their way onto the field, mostly because the Patriots routinely fielded a competitive roster where the goal was to allow young players to grow and learn behind established veterans. If you’re looking for a couple of examples, think of James White and Marcus Cannon sitting for the majority of their rookie seasons before becoming major contributors on Super Bowl teams.
It’s a strategy that undoubtedly worked, but only makes sense when you have a roster in place that can be compeitive.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, that’s not where the Patriots are.
New England sits at 1-3 entering its Week 5 matchup with the New Orleans Saints, with things sitting dangerously close to rock bottom. The Patriots not only got their doors blown off against the Dallas Cowboys, but saw Mac Jones play one of his worst games as a professional and are likely to be without their two most valuable defenders (Christian Gonzalez and Matthew Judon) for the foreseeable future.
Yikes.
Patriots assistant coach Jerod Mayo said something following those injuries that caused one’s ears to perk up, though. He said rookie defensive lineman Keion White was “gonna play more” following the injury to Judon.
That got us thinking, why stop with him?
Gonzalez was the exception to a long-standing rule early in the season, playing in 80% of New England’s defensive snaps through four games. In comparison, the rest of the Patriots’ rookie class is dragging far behind.
It doesn’t make much sense in talking about offensive lineman because that has been a revolving door early in the year, but non-specialist rookies haven’t really played much this season.
White (33%), Marte Mapu (31%) and Demario Douglas (26%) are some of the Patriots’ most promising rookies, but haven’t been given a huge opportunity to play. That’s despite the fact that many of the players they’re stuck behind haven’t performed well, either.
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White was understandably rotating behind Judon, Josh Uche and Anfernee Jennings — who have each been tremendous, and we’ve gotten confirmation that he’ll be playing more. That all makes sense, but why has Mack Wilson gotten more total snaps than Mapu? Why does this receiving corps utilize Douglas as the fourth option?
Those things don’t make much sense. White, Mapu and Douglas have all flashed, with the latter being New England’s most dynamic pass catcher — yet the Patriots would rather force the ball to JuJu Smith-Schuster and DeVante Parker. That’s not even to mention Kayshon Boutte, who played 55 offensive snaps in a season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles before being designated as a healthy scratch the following three weeks. Did he make a pair of notable mistakes? Yes, but punishing him after the fact isn’t going to take them away and certainly isn’t going to make the other receivers magically start playing better.
If the Patriots were a competitive team, it would make sense why they’d ease the rookies in. They’re not, though, so stop wasting time and let the kids learn on the job.