Good News: Ja'Lynn Polk Will Not Become Another of the Patriots' WR Draft Busts. Because He's Going to IR.

Michael Reaves. Getty Images.

By now, the list is long and undistinguished. As familiar in the mouths of Patriots fans as household words. N'Keal Harry. Tyquan Thornton. Aaron Dobson. Brandon Tate. If you want to go way back in the TARDIS, Chad Jackson and Bethel Johnson. Some have tried to add Malcolm Mitchell, but his is a hill I'll gladly die on because he won us a Super Bowl with 70 yards on six receptions before an injury ended his career after just one season. His ticket to immortality is stamped on his Super Bowl LI ring, permanently. 

But for all the failed wide receiver draft picks by the Patriots this century, and they have been many … I mean, check out this brain-breaking stat:

… Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker joined forces in their rookie season to achieve a level of futility that will make you long for the days of Josh Boyce or Taylor Price. They combined for 13 catches, 99 yards and two touchdowns. Which is not only comparable to the 10-catch, 94-yard, 2-TD performance Ladd McConkey dropped in a single game against the team that traded his pick to the Chargers, it was one more touchdown catch than Vederian Lowe had. 

Well there's good news for Polk, at least. He doesn't have to worry about being released or traded after just one season that was the football equivalent of Ice Cube's War of the Worlds. If you'll pardon the dark metaphors, Polk will not be feeling the cold, icy grip of the Turk, leading him off to the pro football afterlife. He was walking the NFL's Green Mile, but he's been granted a stay of execution. 

Ordinarily you'd consider it a tough break to see a 2nd round pick (37th overall) lose his sophomore season to an injury before it even begins. But this is a mercy. 

Polk had a promising spring. I talked to people around team who said he was sort of done dirty by Alex Van Pelt's offensive staff last year, moving him around the formation without any sort of a defined role, and simply threw too much at him. And that things would be different under Josh McDaniels. But it just never materialized for him as spring turned into summer. He made almost no impact in camp. And it became harder and harder to see what scouts saw in him when he came out of U. of Washington.

Now, some were tempted to give him a pass for a nonexistent rookie season. They saw him as more of a developmental prospect, as opposed to an NFL-ready plug-and-play type like McConkey. Myself included, right after they drafted him:

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But even the most patient Pats fan has to admit none of his potential has shown up. H finished an astonishing 221st out of 223 wide receivers graded by Pro Football Focus (thanks, Kameron Johnson [1 target] and Skyy Moore [2 targets]!!!). His passer rating when targeted of 54.9 was better than Thornton's (29.6) and Baker's (38.6), but still only marginally better than if you just threw it into the ground and punted. Or chucked to Vederian Lowe. 

But at least now we all get to kick the can down the road to 2026 and see if I had the right prediction, but was just off by a year. Until then, I'm just going to focus all my hopes on Kyle Williams and hope his name doesn't get added to this depressing list. 

Until we see what Polk can do next year, and Williams can do beginning this year, I'll just keep avoiding buying any jerseys.

I've mushed enough careers, thanks.