DD getting benched is just another reason this team is awful at developing WR talent. Sometimes a soft touch is needed and these are just uber-talented kids that have never seen the speed at which the NFL moves. Wreck them mentally early and their career is a wrap. You need to support them and help them believe they belong here, not bail on the first opportunity to do so. I think most pre-draft talent evaluators would agree NE drafts talent at the position, but once they get in house, they fold. They're either not doing a good job finding guys that fit their system, or they're just not good at getting the most out of what they've drafted. About the only WR I've seen that looked truly bad (slow) on the field was Harry, but even he has talent which is evidenced by all the teams he's been brought in by after leaving NE. To my eye, DD is a star in the making if they don't break him. Put this guy in a real offense and he would absolutely go off. He looks the part. The fumble last night could have been prevented but it was also an amazing play by Chubb. I'm not sure what BB is trying to prove. DD is a kid, a rookie in the league, either put him in their and live with the growing pains or stop drafting skill positions. Bring in vets and use your draft capital elsewhere. BB is trying to run this like the military when in reality, it's not. WRs are divas with fragile egos. Build them up and stop breaking them down. There are a select few superstars that are motivated and respect that kind of leadership, but times are changing. Fewer and fewer respond to being punished for mistakes. This isn't high school football. This is the NFL. You don't think DD knew he F'ed up? Let the kid back in to make a play. Geez. BB is a dinosaur and proving all his critics right by trying to prove he's the smartest person in the room. This team and organization seem a a ship without a sail, drifting in the ocean without any real direction. Brady left years ago. The rebuild should be near complete, not regressing.
BB was on the radio this morning and this topic came up. He never really came out and explained things like a normal person would, but he mentioned sometimes it's better just to get guys out of the lineup and not start a chain of additional mistakes by putting guys back on the field. He usually brings rookies along slowly, and he danced around saying that kids can lose confidence by trying extra hard to make up for a mistake, which can often lead to more mistakes. So in his mind, he was supporting the "fragile egos" by not letting things get worse. (I am not saying I agree with that, but that was his opinion after being a coach in the NFL for 50 years.)
This isn't an attack on you, it's an attack on BB. Now that that's out of the way, that comment is absurd. This wasn't a dumb play. It wasn't DD not taking care of the ball. It wasn't DD doing something dumb or outside of the parameters of what a player like him should do. It was an elite player, Chubb, making an elite play. Sometimes you can do all the right things and still have something happen that's bad. DD is a competitor and I have no doubt if he was let back on the field he would have made up for play and then some. Tell the kid it was a mistake and you have full faith in him and throw him back out there. I did find it curious BB let him catch a punt afterwards which if mindset was a concern is about the worst position a player could be in. This was punishment, nothing more, nothing less and I don't care what BB says on it.
Taking a young player off the field hurts their development. Reps, reps and more reps, they need reps. Young players need to play in game situations to develop, sitting him on the bench because of a fluke mistake like this is laughably stupid. You have to see what you have in a player. This isn't the first WR BB has tried to bring a long this way, and they've all ended in the same way, talent or no talent. The WRs either leave NE for greener pastures and perform, or they fizzle out and are out of the league.
This isn't a situation like where a QB has thrown 3 INTs and the game is out of hand, you're not protecting anyone. The game is close, and rookie or not, it's readily apparently Douglas is one of NE's top playmakers. To let him watch from the sidelines when they needed a spark is just dumb, I don't care if it's a hall of fame coach or not.
A pattern of behavior and results regarding offensive skill position player development have emerged here, and it's not pretty. If BB wants to develop WR talent in house, he might have to stop behaving like a grumpy old high school coach. BB is smart. His game-planning is all time great elite. His player management is sub-optimal to say the least.
