Notes and thoughts on the Patriots’ roster, new coaches, and more.
The busiest days of free agency are behind us with the NFL Draft now just weeks away. While roster movement has calmed down, the New England Patriots new-look coaching staff addressed the media for the first time this past week since arriving to Foxboro while Mike Vrabel and Robert Kraft spoke down in Florida at the league meetings.
Beyond what was already covered on Pats Pulpit over the last seven days, let’s clean out the notebook from a week full of information.
Welcome to the latest edition of our Sunday Patriots Notes.
Clean slate
The Patriots investment in last year’s NFL Draft at the wide receiver position did not pay the immediate dividends they had hoped for.
After selecting Ja’Lynn Polk in the second round, the rookie finished the year with just 12 catches for 87 yards with two touchdowns in 15 games. He then suffered a shoulder injury in Week 17 which ultimately required offseason surgery.
Polk’s fellow rookie receiver, Javon Baker, also failed to make an impact as the fourth rounder did not catch his first pass of the year until the season finale. He finished with just that one reception for 12 yards.
As New England continues to look for answers at the wide receiver position, Polk and Baker have already got to work in an important offseason under a new coaching staff — who have not yet thrown in the towel on the duo.
“I didn’t do a whole lot of investigating about what went wrong,” Mike Vrabel said earlier this week of Polk and Baker’s rookie seasons. “I’m trying to focus on what’s going to go right. And so I know that Ja’Lynn is working hard. He’s excited about being a new dad. He’s working hard to rehab that shoulder, focusing on, and again, he said this, not me, but this is something I’ll always say, is he’s focused on what he can do as opposed to what he can’t do. So he’s lifted hard. He’s lifting his lower body hard. He wants to get stronger and where he can make gains right now, about strength is in his lower body, because he’s rehabbing his shoulder. So that’s exciting to me.
“Javon, I’ve been communicating with and again, I’m excited to get these guys back whenever they come back, and get going, like we’re going to evaluate them going forward, not anything that happened. And if there’s things that we can try to eliminate from last year, we’ve had those conversations and whatever their frustrations were, or whatever things that did or didn’t happen, we’re moving forward with what we see in them and the excitement that they have. And so the more excited they are about learning, we’ll be just as excited about teaching them.”
The teaching will begin on Monday, April 7 as the Patriots begin their voluntary offseason program. It’s when New England’s entire new offensive coaching staff will put their clean slate protocol into motion.
“I’m excited about [the whole wide receiver room],” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Thursday. “Everybody’s got a clean slate, and to me, that’s going to be an important message that I know Coach is going to give on Monday, and we’re going to echo that. I’ve always — it’s best to really refrain from making assessments on people until you really have them in your room, until you get to know them, until you coach them, until you put them on the field.”
When Polk and Baker eventually return to the field, they will do so under new wide receivers coach Todd Downing’s watch. A former offensive coordinator under Vrabel in Tennessee, Downing will coach the position for the first time in his career.
It’s a role he’s looking forward to working in in part due to the young duo.
“It’s one of the reasons I was really excited to accept this job,” Downing said. “There’s a lot of talent and young talent in that room, and I think that fresh start mentality that we were discussing earlier gives everybody a chance to kind of say, ‘I’m going to bring my skill set and see where I can develop it.’ And we talk a lot as a staff, and I’ll talk to the players when they’re back, they’re going to get out of it what they put into it,”
“So if they bring their skill set and don’t put very much work into it, that skill set probably won’t show up very much. But if they work hard, if they’re diligent about trying to learn the system, if they’re selfless and they work to be good teammates, I think good things will happen for those guys.”
Coming from the Jets last season where he served as their QB coach and passing game coordinator, Downing shared he did pre-draft work on both Polk and Baker. After accepting the job in New England, he went back to watch their rookie tape.
“You see those flashes of ability,” he said of his 2024 rewatch. “I think as long as the character and the approach to this offseason matches that fresh start mentality, I think they’ve got the tools to be able to do some things and show out as NFL wide receivers.”
Downing’s role
The hiring of a wide receiver coach was an important one for Vrabel’s staff due to the lack of development at that position in recent years. The addition of Downing then surprised some as the 2025 season will mark his first leading a wide receiver room.
As a former quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, Downing plans on taking his own approach to teaching the position.
“I don’t think the position matters as much if you enjoy teaching,” Downing said. “I may not be the greatest footwork drill specialist out there. I’m not going to be leading YouTube views but I know football and I know what it takes to get the receivers open on time. I know what the quarterbacks thinking from a coverage standpoint.
“Spent a long time coaching quarterbacks and coordinating so I’ll be approaching this thing with the wide outs like, ‘Hey you can get open the wrong way and not get the football, or I can help you get open the right way and get the football.’”
New England opted not to add someone with experience coaching the fine details of the position to their staff — as they did last year as Tiquan Underwood assisted Tyler Hughes. Instead, they could look internally to a veteran such as Stefon Diggs, who Downing expects to take on a larger leadership role.
“Watching kind of his maturation throughout the course of his career… he’s now in a position where he’s fully ready to lead,” Downing, who spent a year on staff in Minnesota with Diggs, said. “It’s extremely valuable as a coach to have someone champion your message when you’re not in the room. Steph’s definitely a guy that I think can do that.”
Grant’s connections
Beginning his NFL coaching career in Cleveland, Patriots quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant spent four years learning under ex-Browns and Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. After Grant interviewed and accepted the job in New England, Van Pelt helped out his former colleague yet again by hosting him at his house for his first week on the job.
The Connecticut native has enjoyed his return to the area, which now includes frequent trips to Dunkin Donuts with Josh McDaniels.
“Me and Josh have been tied at the hip. We go to Dunkin Donuts every day at like 12:30 and we just talk more football,” Grant said. “It’s just a chance for me to get him one-on-one and pick his brain a little bit. It’s been awesome just to be able to… get step-and-key with each other in order to be able to speak the same language.”
Maye’s development
Coming from Cleveland, it should be a smooth transition for quarterback Drake Maye from Van Pelt and T.C. McCartney to Grant in McDaniels’ system.
Last year’s coaching staff used left foot forward mechanics to improve Maye’s footwork and timing in the passing game. With Grant now in the fold, the footwork will carry over for Maye in year two.
“I have experience with the same footwork Drake was using last year and that was the same footwork that we were using in Cleveland while AVP was there,” Grant said. “We’re probably gonna end up keeping it the same and try to build on what he has done in the past.”
Grant noted that he kept a strong relationship with both Van Pelt and McCartney throughout last year, and both quickly reached out after he was hired by New England to share how excited he should be to work with the young quarterback.
O-line familiarity
New Patriots offensive line coach Doug Marrone comes to Foxboro with over 30 years of coaching experience. That has included recent stops in the collegiate world at both the University of Alabama (2021) and Boston College (2024).
As the Patriots are set to enter the NFL Draft with needs along the offensive line, Marrone’s connections from the college game are noteworthy. That includes recruiting OT Will Campbell, OT Kelvin Banks, OT Josh Conerly, OT Emery Jones, and OG Tyler Booker during his time at Alabama.
Marrone then worked with OT Ozzy Trapilo and iOL Drew Kendall with the Eagles last season, making them logical targets on day two and three, respectively.
Kicking competition
With Joey Slye signing in Tennessee, the Patriots will enter the draft with just John Parker Romo on the roster. That will change, as special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer confirmed the team will soon add competition at the position.
Springer has been busy on the road meeting with kickers across the country while him and top assistant Tom Quinn have watched every draft eligible prospect at the position. As for what they’re looking for?
“First and foremost, the character part of it is really important,” Springer explained. “I don’t want just a kicker I want a guy that’s going to be great in the locker room.
“I want a guy’s guy — like an athlete overall. That’s consistent through college and or in the NFL where it’s a free agent, or it’s a college kid. It doesn’t matter. I don’t know who we’re going to get yet we’re going through that process. But, his consistency, the ball rotation, the ball flight and now… there is the kickoff part of it. Like he can’t just be one dimensional.”
In previous years under Bill Belichick, the Patriots would prioritize kickers with experience in inclement weather due to the challenges of kicking in New England late in the season. While Springer factors that into his equation, the most important part of his evaluation remains the ball rotation and height off the foot.
Jones’ praise
Entering the offseason, there were questions about the fit of 5-foot-8 Marcus Jones, who also enters the final year of his rookie contract, in the Patriots new-look defense. But after watching the film, cornerbacks coach Justin Hamilton walked away with a different view on the player.
“Was pleasantly surprised with what I saw from last year’s film when I watched him play at nickel and at corner,” Hamilton said Friday. “He’s a fit for us in the DB room. In my conversations with him, it’s been a young man that has an older soul and very mature and communicates really well. Watching his tape, saw a more physical player than I expected to see in the tape that I saw.”
Hamilton also noted he sees a bit of Travis Hunter in the Patriots corner due to his ability to play all three phases. Jones’ ability to moonlight on offense was a point of conversation last year as offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt was unaware of his prior experience until midseason.
“Being in Indy, having played late in the year up here, that I’m telling the coordinator on the headset, ’25’s in the game’, and we’re coaching on defense,” Hamilton shared. “So to know what he can do with his hands, on the football, in the return game, I think he’s just an asset for a football team.”
Kraft’s expectations
“To make the playoffs,” Robert Kraft said this week at the league meetings when asked what would make the 2025 season successful.
“I’ll get chastised for saying it, but I think we’re ahead of [ground zero],” Kraft then said of their rebuild. “I think we have some real talent in the locker room. I think we’re privileged now to have a head coach that has learning-curve experience and has really come in and created a great atmosphere. I remember him as a player and his competitive attitude. He has grown as an individual in terms of having that edge but also being able to build a sense of team and cooperation. It’s unusual when every part of the building feels that he’s someone they can relate to, and he’s cooperating and he’s putting the team first. It’s really created a great sense of camaraderie.”
Setting up the week ahead
Players will be back in the building on Monday for the beginning of the team’s voluntary offseason program. It’s the start of the nine week program this spring which is originally restricted to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation work.
Additionally, with less than three weeks left until the NFL Draft, New England will continue to host prospects on visits as they put the final touches on their draft board. The Pro Day circuit is complete, however, following the conclusion of Colorado’s Pro Day on Friday — where Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Ryan Cowden was in attendance.