Drake Maye is Making Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker His Personal Projects in 2025

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There'll be no attempt here to try to put a shine on the sneakers that were the rookie seasons of Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker. The not-so-early returns are in on the big draft day trade of Eliot Wolf's rookie season as GM, and this was an unmitigated disaster. The football version of a chemical spill into the water supply that may take years to clean up. 

The swap of picks with the Chargers resulted in them getting Ladd McConkey (82 receptions, 1,149 yards, 7 TDs, 9th place in OROY voting) and Tarheeb Still (4 INTs, 1 TD, 62 tackles, 7th in DROY voting), while the Patriots got two receivers whose numbers I won't post out of common courtesy because these men have families. Suffice to say that in the 2024 season combined, they had less production than McConkey had at Foxboro in Week 17. 

I mention this because the utter failure of Polk and Baker means that, for at least the seventh season in a row, the Patriots have their work cut out for them in their wide receiver room. They need to go into free agency already having decided if this was just a down year for these guys and they deserve a second chance, or they should consider those picks what the accountants call a "sunk cost" and write them off now. 

And to my way of thinking, no judgement call on Polk and Baker should be made without consulting with Drake Maye. And from the sound of the conversation he had with Chris Long, he wants to work with these guys:

"I think, we bought into two rookie receivers, Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker that were kind of feeling it out this year and they both battled some injuries, but I think hopefully expecting one of them, if not both, to kind of make a splash this year.

 “I really take it upon myself…quarterback/receivers, it’s my job to get them the football.”

I fully understand how these things are handled. Maye is a 22 year old with a dozen career starts who's establishing himself as a leader. If he was 2019 Tom Brady, he'd have the pelts on his saddle to walk into the coach's office and say, "N'Keal Harry is  garbage and I'd rather take my chances forcings one into Jules in triple coverage than a 3-yard out to this stiff left uncovered in the flat." At this point in his career, it's only natural Maye will try to be all about positivity and building his guys' confidence. Even if he's being a little like the girl interested in dating a guy because she sees the good in him and wants to fix him, he deserves that right. He's earned it.

Skeptical though we all might be - and I certainly am - there is a logic to his approach. At the risk of sounding like I'm congratulating myself on my own, almost clairvoyant genius on this issue, I did say Polk would be a project when Wolf selected him:

The fact the Patriots took Ja'Lynn Polk when they did, with the 37th overall pick indicates a lot of things all at once. 

First, that new GM Eliot Wolf is going to do things his way. Generally speaking, Polk was considered somewhere around the 13th-15th best receiver in this class and projected to go late in the 2nd round. But Wolf made him the 10th WR off the board with the 5th pick of the round. …

So what I'm taking away from this is exactly what I said when they took Drake Maye. These picks so are are not about instantly turning this franchise - this offense in particular - around immediately. Yes, Polk posted 1,159 yards and 9 TDs in Washington last year. And has had an average of 16.8 YPC in each of the last two seasons. But like Maye, he's not a finished product. He's not a plug-and-play rookie like so many guys still on the board are. This is another case of Wolf's staff looking ahead. Finding someone they are comfortable believeing can be coached up, worked on, refined, into a consistently reliable weapon. Just not this year. 

It's a bold strategy [and] we've gotten our first mini-gamble of the Wolf-Mayo Era. But one that definitely feels like it's looking down the road, not an any instant gratification. Here's hoping Polk works out. Soon enough that the people who drafted him are still around to accept the credit.

A mini-gamble that hasn't paid off. Not by a damned sight. And not instant gratification by any stretch of the imagination. But to repeat the key takeaway of the whole blog, Polk wasn't expected to be. By extension, neither was Baker. I'm not seeing the upside in either one of them at the moment, but Maye does. Whether or not he's just being a good teammate and a pal, he sees them as projects he wants to work on and deserves his shot to see if he can undo the damage of last year. 

As does Mike Vrabel, Josh McDaniels, and WR coach Todd Downing. No less of a source than Steve Smith Sr. blames some of the problem on the previous coaching staff:

So we'll see. The good news for Polk and Baker is that when you combined for roughly 100 yards on the season, there's no place to go but up.