FOXBORO -- The picture at receiver for the Patriots is still somewhat uncertain. We projected six to make the final 53-man roster (not including special-teams ace Matthew Slater), but of course they could keep a different six than the ones we chose.
Maybe Braxton Berrios is the choice over Demaryius Thomas. Maybe Berrios is the choice over Phillip Dorsett. Maybe Bill Belichick only wants to keep five. Maybe he only keeps four. He's done both in the past.
Thomas is a particularly interesting case. He could've remained on the physically unable to perform list until midseason and be activated when he's (theoretically) healthier. But the Patriots brought him back to practice last week, which made him eligible to play Week 1.
That could've been a sign they wanted Thomas to play as soon as possible because there are so many question marks with others at that position. N'Keal Harry, for instance, is still dealing with an injury he suffered in Detroit earlier this month. Jakobi Meyers still has a ways to go as an undrafted rookie. Josh Gordon's reinstatement by the NFL is conditional.
But is Thomas ready? He said on Sunday that he "still can go." But he also said that he can feel his explosiveness come and go. Not ideal at a position where explosiveness is critical.
I asked Belichick on Monday what he's seen from Thomas, who only has a few days of practice with the team under his belt.
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"We'll just take it day by day," Belichick said. "Certainly he's done some impressive things. But it's stringing them together. It's being able to do it on a consistent basis and come back and doing it again. That's really pretty much everybody's situation. He just entered into it a little bit later."
With Thomas no longer on PUP, the Patriots have a decision to make.
Should they keep him on the roster even if he's not exactly at full strength? That could be the choice if they feel like Week 1 isn't ideal for his return but Week 4 might be. (Had he remained on PUP, Thomas would've had to have been sidelined through Week 6.)
Or should they release him in order to make room for another receiver like Dorsett or Berrios? Or does someone like Gunner Olszewski, who impressed in his own right as a punt returner last week, deserve a longer look?
"He's really started from the bottom up," Belichick said of the corner-turned-wideout from Bemidji State. "We needed a little depth on the roster at that particular point in time in the spring. There were some players out. Felt like he'd be worth working with.
"He's consistently gotten better and improved in things that we've asked him to do. He's got a long way to go too. But he's showed a lot of improvement. Been out there every day. He works hard. He gets better. He's got some physical skill to work with. Not a real big guy. But he's tough, competitive, runs well so we'll keep working with him -- as long as we can. We'll keep working with all these guys as long as we can. At some point we're gonna have to make roster decisions and work with fewer players. We'll do what we feel is best for the team at that point."
Whatever they decide, Thomas' ceiling as an "impressive" physical specimen at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds will have to be weighed against the fact that he's admitting he's still working his way back from a torn Achilles late last season.
“I can feel it,” he said Sunday of his explosiveness. “I can feel it certain days and certain days I can’t. It’s a thing that I feel when I play and I still got it. I touched it here and there but some days some stuff it bothers (me)."
We pegged the realistic expectations for Thomas' production this season to be somewhere close to what Dorsett -- the team's No. 4 receiver and No. 6 most targeted player in the passing game -- gave New England in 2018.
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