Sports Final: What's going on with Kendrick Bourne?
BOSTON -- Kendrick Bourne enjoyed tons of success in his first season with the Patriots, emerging as one of Mac Jones' favorite targets. His second year in New England, however, has gotten off to a bumpy start.
With the offseason additions of DeVante Parker and rookie Tyquan Thornton, Bourne's usage and targets took a dip in training camp. Then during last week's joint practices with the Panthers, Bourne found himself either on the sideline or in the locker room on Tuesday, and was then spotted working with offensive reserves on Wednesday as a form of punishment.
Bourne did not play in Friday night's preseason game against Carolina, leading many to believe there is something up with the receiver and the team. There were some rumblings that the Patriots may be looking to trade Bourne ahead of the regular season over the weekend, but ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss dismissed those rumors on Sunday night's Sports Final on WBZ-TV.
"No trade rumors, but what happened this past week was he was not ready to practice. He came out for a drill and his knee pads weren't down and the referee came and told him to get out of the drill. Bill Belichick was not happy," Reiss explained. "He turned around to Kendrick and said some words we cannot say on this family broadcast.
"Then, about 30 minutes later the big fight starts to happen, and Kendrick runs across the field and delivers a punch and gets kicked out. Those two things, if you're Bill Belichick, you're sending a message to Kendrick: You be ready to practice, don't do that, and you earn your time on the field," said Reiss.
Reiss doesn't believe that the Patriots will trade Bourne, especially now with Thornton expected to miss at least two months with a broken collarbone. But Bourne definitely needs to get right and return to form.
"They need him -- but they need him to be back to being Kendrick Bourne," added Reiss.
Bourne is with the team out in Las Vegas, with the Patriots set to have a pair of joint practices with the Raiders ahead of Friday night's preseason finale.
Check out the full segment above where Reiss and Christian Fauria chat everything Patriots with Steve Burton, including Thornton's injury, the team's vertical attack and what it means for the offense, and the added quickness on defense.
