The Patriots vast receiver corps might look so much completely different in 2024.
New England signed Okay.J. Osborn in free company, drafted Ja’Lynn Polk (No. 37) and Javon Baker (No. 110) within the 2024 NFL Draft and misplaced DeVante Parker, who introduced his retirement this offseason,
The inflow of younger expertise has left Professional Bowl vast receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster’s future with the staff up within the air, however he revealed that is not a brand new feeling.
“I really feel like each coaching camp I’ve one thing to show,” Smith-Schuster stated through Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. “That is a part of my nature, a part of my sport.”
It does not assist that the 27-year-old is coming off a disappointing season through which he registered simply 29 catches for 260 yards and one landing in 11 video games.
That is not the manufacturing the Patriots had been possible hoping to see after signing him to a three-year, $25.5 million contract final offseason.
Smith-Schuster is aware of that and is able to show himself once more as a dependable go catcher within the league.
“It is all the time been in me, that canine, that competitiveness,” Smith-Schuster added. “I have been in numerous conditions the place I have been making these arduous catches and having the ability to convert and transfer the sticks. For positive, obtained that canine in me, for positive.”
New England additionally has a brand new regime taking on, led by head coach Jerod Mayo. A shift in management typically ends in numerous change, and Smith-Schuster hopes he is not part of that in a crowded vast receiver room.
“I’d say that the competitors degree could be very, very excessive,” Smith-Schuster completed. “I really feel like for myself, it is one thing that popping out right here and obtained to show to compete with these guys.”
Smith-Schuster has a $7 million assured wage in 2024, so if the battle is shut, the Patriots might decide to offer him one other likelihood, but when it is not, they could minimize their losses with him.
The previous second-round decide (No. 62) by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2017 has 430 catches for five,048 yards and 30 touchdowns in his seven-year NFL profession.
