FOXBOROUGH — As the preseason heats up, there are battles raging across the Patriots roster — not just at quarterback.
So whose stock is up and whose went down in Thursday’s 22-13 win over the Washington Football Team at Gillette Stadium?
Let’s get to the breakdown and find out:
Wide receiver
Biggest riser: Kristian Wilkerson
Biggest fall: N’Keal Harry
Roster locks: Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Jakobi Meyers
N’Keal Harry led the Patriots out of the tunnel last night — and then the training camp star disappeared. Harry played all of the offensive snaps in the first half and wasn’t targeted once. He finished with one catch for four yards. Training camp highlights are great, but Harry still needs to start delivering more consistently when the lights come on.
On the other hand, Kristian Wilkerson was Mac Jones’ favorite target.
Though he dropped a would-be touchdown in the second quarter, the wide receiver showed great resilience, finishing the game with a team-high six catches for 39 yards. He was targeted nine times — no other wide receiver had more than three — and continually found a way to get open.
“I just try to go 1-0 on every play and just forget the last play,” Wilkerson said. “You can’t dwell on the last play because it’s over. Even if it is a good play, you can’t think about it.”
As for the other contenders, Gunner Olszewski finished without a reception, while Isaiah Zuber didn’t catch a pass until Brian Hoyer was in the game.
Running back
Biggest riser: Rhamondre Stevenson
Biggest fall: Nobody, really
Roster locks: Damien Harris, James White
The Patriots are incredibly deep at running back, which is a great problem to have for a team built to play smashmouth football.
Rhamondre Stevenson stormed onto the scene late last night, carrying the ball 10 times for 127 yards and a pair of touchdowns. After Ron Rivera was inexplicably calling timeouts in garbage time of an exhibition game, Stevenson ripped off a 91-yard run to the house.
“Today I learned he’s pretty fast,” James White cracked. “He’s a young guy ready to work and competing. He’s got a lot of talent as you guys can see… I was hoping he didn’t get caught. That was a great play call. OL, fullbacks, receivers did a great job blocking and that was a great run for a guy his size.”
Though Stevenson stole the show late, J.J. Taylor was very good throughout the game, too. With Jones hitting his stride in the hurry-up offense, Taylor kept finding ways to get open. All told he caught all five balls thrown his way (31 yards) and looked explosive in the return game.
Secondary
Biggest riser: Joejuan Williams
Biggest fall: Myles Bryant
Roster locks: Stephon Gilmore, J.C. Jackson, Adrian Phillips, Devin McCourty, Kyle Dugger, Jalen Mills, Jonathan Jones
Joejuan Williams was active in the secondary on Thursday night and seemed to improve as the game went along. He broke up a tying two-point conversion late, even though he’d initially been beat on the route, and intercepted Steven Montez earlier in the game.
“Made a nice play on the tip ball and ran it,” Bill Belichick said. “Made a couple nice tackles out there. We’ll take a look at it and go through the film and all. But I thought our secondary competed well.”
The only reason Bryant is falling here is because he literally did and couldn’t finish the game. The undersized cornerback laid an absolute lick on a Washington ball carrier but wound up taking the worst of the collision. It was a tough break, because he was playing quite well.
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