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The New England Patriots will be getting a key weapon back for Week 5 against the Miami Dolphins.
The team is activating wide receiver Kendrick Bourne off the PUP list and he'll make his season debut Sunday, per Tom Pelissero.
Bourne is a key target for the Pats. Tight end Hunter Henry leads New England in receptions right now, much in part due to Bourne's absence. The pass-catcher suffered a season-ending ACL injury in Week 8 of last season and had put up some impressive numbers to that point. Bourne reeled in 37 catches for 406 yards and four touchdowns and was on pace to surpass the 1,000-yard mark.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said earlier this week that Bourne is ready to return, via the team's website:
“Yeah, he's about ready to go,” Mayo told The Greg Hill Show on Monday morning. “I thought it was good to bring him on the trip just to get back in the routine and the process of being on an away trip.”
Bourne was a free agent this past offseason but decided to re-sign with New England, earning a three-year extension worth $19.5 million. He'll be with them until 2026. His return couldn't come at a better time for the struggling Patriots, who sit at 1-3 and have lost three games in a row. They rank dead last in the NFL in passing yards with only 112.2 per contest and 31st in points with a mere 13 per outing. The Pats definitely need a boost.
While Bourne impressed in 2023, he underachieved in 2022 and made it his mission to improve:
“I didn't give the team my best effort,” admitted Bourne in summer 2023 about his 2022 season, via Patriots.com. “Personally we as players have to be our best so we can give the team the opportunity to win and I feel like I didn't do that. So I've been grinding, trying to get bigger, weighing more, just being a more solid receiver and being able to do more.
“I don't really go off stats, I go off how I feel, how I look and I just wasn't in a good place, now I just want to avoid that. So it was a good learning process, it was good that it happened to me, and it's always good to learn from hard times, struggling times.”
Bourne's best campaign came in 2021 with 55 receptions for 800 yards.
