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Patriots-Colts preview: Pats entering a crucial ‘evaluation period’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
FOXBORO — There should be two primary objectives for the Patriots for the remainder of the 2024 season.
No. 1? Establish something in the way of a culture, a standard and an identity in Jerod Mayo’s first year as head coach. Still plenty of work to do on that front, it seemed, after a Week 12 thrashing in Miami that featured a lack of focus and communication.
No. 2? Find out what the young players on the roster can do. In the thick of a rebuild, there is nothing more valuable than talented, cost-controlled players on rookie contracts who have proven themselves to be franchise cornerstones. The ones who can’t meet that bar at least give the team a clearer picture as to what its needs are going into next offseason.
Mayo explained this week that, with the time they have left, he and his staff will be providing their young players an opportunity to stake their claims to long-term roles moving into 2025 and beyond.
“Look, I would say, not to get too specific, but I will,” Mayo said. “You need a guy like Layden Robinson to show what he can do. We need a guy like Cole Strange before the end of the season to see what he can do. You can use Caedan [Wallace] in that same bucket. We need to see what the receivers can do and what they’re going to look like going forward.
“That’s the hard part for me. Look, you want to win right now, but at the same time, I think it would be a disservice to go to the end of the season and not know exactly what we have.”
It’s not a tryout, per se. But it is an evaluation period. And someone like Robinson, who could fill a void after the team released Michael Jordan earlier this week, could significantly impact how the Patriots allocate their team-building resources come March. (Jordan was re-signed to the practice squad and elevated to be in uniform for Sunday’s game.)
If, for example, either Robinson or Strange show they can be…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/patriots-colts-preview-pats-entering-233907821.html
Author : NBC Sports Boston
Publish date : 2024-11-30 23:43:00
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