While first-round pick Cole Strange and fourth-round pick Jack Jones saw a lot of playing time during team drills on the Patriots' first day of OTAs on Monday, one particularly interesting rookie was nowhere to be found: second-round pick Tyquan Thornton.
The speedy receiver out of Baylor was among a host of players that didn't participate in Monday's initial practice of the OTA period. (After practice, he played a light game of catch with rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe.)
But he did participate in wide receiver drills, giving the media a first look at the main factors that have stood out about him since the Patriots selected him with the 50th overall pick last month: his speed, his solid hands, and his very thin frame.
When asked about his new teammate after Monday's practice, Kendrick Bourne couldn't help but point out the elephant in the room on both ends of the spectrum.
“Tyquan’s dope,” he told reporters with a chuckle. “We gonna get some weight on my guy. But (Thornton) is blazing, though."
The draw with Thornton is his rare 4.28-second 40-yard dash speed combined with his elite first-step quickness and acceleration, which puts him in the stratosphere of speed demons like Tyreek Hill.
But he also looks like a string bean at 6-foot-2 and 181 pounds and is direly in need of a couple of off-seasons in an NFL weight room.
Bourne, of course, isn't exactly D.K. Metcalf either, checking in at 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds according to the Patriots' latest roster. But he said he's added some weight to his frame and credits New England's staff with helping him fill out, noting that Thornton can do the same in time.
"This is the place to do that," Bourne said. "So if he buys in and applies the things he needs to, he’ll be able to get to the place he wants to be. Because for me, I bought in and it worked out fast, man. You get the result you put in.”
At this stage, it's too early to say why Thornton didn't get any run on OTA Day 1. Perhaps he has a minor injury we don't know about or the Patriots wanted him to get some extra conditioning in to prepare for the NFL grind.
Or maybe New England doesn't want to get tongues wagging about its ultra-fast offensive weapon too much before the pads come on in July.
We'll see how much Thornton emerges, if at all, at the next Patriots practice the media will attend next Tuesday. In the meantime, Bourne likes what he sees from the youngster.
"Good attitude…He’s bought in," Bourne said of the rookie. "You could tell he cares. And I think it was a dope pick, man. We need speed and we need to add that downfield threat, man. So, I think he gives us that part of the field.
“That’s another thing. You know, learning from him too — I can learn from him; he can learn from us. He’s in the right place. If he has the right attitude and applies himself, this type of place will take you to another level.”
