CHICAGO – Ja’Lynn Polk heard the noise. It was up to him to silence it and refocus his energy on football.
The Patriots rookie receiver had a very good training camp and a solid start this season before stumbling. After some atypical dropped pass and failing to get his feet in bounds on a potential touchdown against the Miami Dolphins, Jerod Mayo said he thought the second-round pick was dealing with some mental hurdles.
In an interview with MassLive, Polk rejected that notion and said he’s so confident in his abilities that he believes he has the best hands in the NFL. Unfortunately for the rookie, more dropped passes, a concussion, and less playing time followed.
That’s why what happened on Sunday was such a big deal.
Polk was back in the Patriots starting lineup and caught the only touchdown scored in the team’s win over the Bears.
“It means a lot to get the touchdown,” Polk said. “But I think it’s more important and feels a lot better that we were able to go out there and play as a team and fight through adversity, have a belief in one another just to go out there and get a win.”
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This summer, Polk looked like one of the Patriots best receivers and best red zone threats. He had a solid start to his rookie season, catching eight passes for 55 yards in the first four games.
For him, trouble started against Miami, where he nearly had a touchdown catch but failed to properly get both feet in bounds in the back of the end zone in what could’ve been a game-winning touchdown. Since that Miami game, Polk had two catches on 14 targets for 17 yards. Last week, in Tennessee, he had no catches but was called for two penalties.
On Sunday, after starting, Polk caught a 2-yard touchdown from Drake Maye at 1:46 of the second quarter.
“That’s pretty cool. A second-round pick. JP, he’s finding it,” Maye said “I think he’s going to be a great player. I hope that touchdown gives him a lot of confidence and he’ll make some plays for us.”
The Patriots have a lot of belief in Polk, which is why they drafted him with the 37th overall pick last spring. That hope is that the touchdown will only be the start of something special.
“It was great. With these young players, you never know when that inflection point is going to come. You never know when that switch is going to flip,” Mayo said of Polk. “Hopefully, this is the start of him being a very good receiver in this league. We never doubted him in the locker room. I think that’s important. There’s been a lot of outside noise and he’s had to deal with the outside noise. When it’s all said and done, if you go out and do it on the field, there’s not much people can say.”
