Rookie wide receiver Demario “Pop” Douglas has the longest catch of any Patriots wideout through two games this season, but he was stuck on the bench for most of last Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins.
Douglas lost a fumble that led to a Dolphins touchdown in the first half of the game and did not see the field on offense the rest of the way. It’s not the first time that a Patriots player has fallen out of favor under Bill Belichick because of a fumble, but offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien said on Tuesday that benching Douglas wasn’t a sign of things to come in the future.
O’Brien said he thinks Douglas “will learn from what happened” and that he has not lost confidence in the sixth-round pick.
“Ball security is obviously a huge part of what we preach. I have a lot of confidence in Pop Douglas, as I do all the players that we have,” O’Brien said, via Nick O’Malley of MassLive.com. “I think as the game played out the other day, because of what we did, the packages that we went to, whether we were in no-hudle or some of the things that we were doing, It just wasn’t Pop on the field. At the end of the day, I think we have to do a better job of continuing to get everybody involved in the game plan throughout the game and that’s what we’ll do.”
At 0-2 with 37 points in two games, it is hard for the Patriots to shun any player who can help them put points on the board but it remains to be seen if the potential reward will outweigh the perceived risk of playing Douglas against the Jets this weekend.
