Jerod Mayo spoke with the media about the decision to bench Kendrick Bourne vs. the Chicago Bears, and whether or not we can expect to see him vs. the Rams on Sunday.
It sounds like Kendrick Bourne will play more of a role in the New England Patriots offense Sunday afternoon versus the Los Angeles Rams than he did in last week's win over the Chicago Bears.
Bourne was active for the Week 10 matchup against Chicago and had no injury designation, but he surprisingly did not play a single offensive snap. The Patriots beat the Bears 19-3 to improve their record to 3-7 entering Sunday's Week 11 showdown versus the Rams at Gillette Stadium.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo was asked at his press conference Friday whether he expects Bourne to play this weekend, to which he replied, "Yes."
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"Kendrick has had a good week of practice," Mayo added. "Sometimes you need -- I don't want to call it a wake-up call, but to go out there and be active and not have any snaps, he's a driven individual. He's a very good player, we've just got to get him going."
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Why didn't Bourne play against the Bears?
"There was a lot that went into that," Mayo told reporters last Sunday after the Week 10 victory. "Any time you put the active roster together ... we thought that was the best thing to do for us to give us the best chance to win. All those guys bring a certain skill set to the game; we just didn't know who was gonna play more. And it just played out that way."
Bourne last saw snaps in the Patriots' Week 9 overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans. He caught four passes for 41 yards on six targets in that game. He has eight receptions for 70 yards in five games after making his season debut in Week 5 versus the Miami Dolphins.
It's no secret the Patriots lack high-end talent at wide receiver, and they have not gotten consistent production from any one player at the position this season. If you look at the six players with the most receptions on the team through 10 games, only two of them are wideouts (DeMario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte).
Bourne is a dependable veteran. So if he's healthy -- and he hasn't been on the injury report this week -- then it makes sense to play him a meaningful amount of snaps. The Patriots need to surround rookie quarterback Drake Maye with the best pass-catching options on the roster, and that should include Bourne.
