FOXBORO – It was around this time last summer that Brian Tyms started making an impression. Until the first preseason game of the year, Tyms was just a guy with a receiver’s number.
Then he caught five balls for 119 yards and a touchdown against Washington and attention was suddenly being paid. A great leaper and a player who just kept fighting for – and winning – 50-50 deep balls, Tyms and rookie Jimmy Garoppollo seemed to have some chemistry.
Over the final three preseason games, Tyms did enough to convince the Patriots to keep him around, finishing the preseason with 11 catches for 188 yards and two scores. He began the season on a four-game suspension but was elevated to the active roster when that was served.
Tyms had a brilliant, 43-yard touchdown catch in Week 8 against Buffalo and after that…nothing. No catches until Week 17 in a mail-it-in loss to the Bills.
Tyms entered camp this summer understanding he needs to carve a spot for himself. So it was a blow when Tyms went down after getting slammed by corner Robert McClain during a 1-on-1 tackling drill. Tyms didn’t return to practice until Monday.
Asked about the play with McClain, Tyms deadpanned: “It hurt.”
And the red non-contact jersey he’s relegated to wearing? “The red thing is a swag kind of thing. They said, ‘Hey, what jersey you wanna wear?” I said, ‘Hey, red!’ So…”
New England Patriots
Tyms is tremendously personable but he’s also got an urgency to him. It’s the type of attitude a player who’s been with four teams since 2012 has to have if he’s going to succeed. He takes the process extremely seriously.
When asked how devastating it was to miss practice time, Tyms replied, “You’d be a fool not to look at every rep in practice and not try to go all out. The greats go all out every route. And I’m trying to be great. I have a long way to go but I know the first step I’ve learned from all the old guys on this team last year and this year: use every rep. Give it all. Because you never know when the rep you take off is your last rep.”
Between Aaron Dobson, Josh Boyce, Tyms and veteran Brandon Gibson, one of them will likely take their last rep with the Patriots before the regular season begins.
If Tyms doesn’t want it to be him, he has to stay upright, out of that swaggy red jersey and make the same kind of impact he did last summer. Nobody knows that better than he does.
“There’s competition everywhere,” he said. “It’s the NFL. We have to use every opportunity we have.”