Tyquan Thornton Will Miss Time with a Collarbone Injury Because We Can’t Have Nice Things

Well isn’t this is a big waffle cone filled with a triple scoop of suck on a lot of levels.

“Sure, Old Balls,” you might be saying. “You’re gifted and charming and all. But rookies and wide receivers get hurt every day. What makes this guy so special?”

And to that I say, you’re right on the first part. And sadly mistaken on the second. This blows for several reasons, not the least of which is what I admitted to this morning in my recap of the Pats preseason game:

--On Thornton's one reception - from Brian Hoyer on the fourth possession, he showed again why we're all so high on him. It's not his Quicksilver speed. Lots of trackletes come into the league, only to be gone and forgotten in no time. It's his precision. His route-running. On his catch, he ran off the corner, came back on the ball, with no wasted steps or motion. Then turned up field for a couple more, rather than just go down at first contact. He's already better at the fine points of the position than N'Keal Harry ever was.

I’m not claiming I have the power to affect the players faith with my purchasing decisions. But I’m not saying I don’t, either. The last piece of merchandise I bought was a T-shirt in the Patriots Pro Shop. I had a gift card to use up and was torn between two players. Julian Edelman or Stephon Gilmore. I chose the former DPOTY. And I’m not sure that he ever played another down in the uniform the T-shirt was styled after. I have a bit of bad history about this sort of thing.

My own personal culpability aside, recent history indicates that rookie wideouts who miss significant time tend to get left behind. Look no further than the guy I compared Thornton to earlier. He looked good in the first half of camp in 2019. Only to miss the first two months of the season. And the rest is inglorious, dishonorable history. Rookies need those flight hours. When you miss significant time running wraps and practice and against live competition when the bullets are real, well it’s hard to diminish how big a setback that is for a young player.

Finally, now we are all going to have to brace ourselves for the tsunami of verbal diarrhea headed Belichick’s way. Until Thornton gets into a game and light it up for 10 receptions and 100 yards, this is going to be held up as yet another example of how GM Bill can’t draft wide receivers. It’s going to be a non-stop, Category 5 shitstorm that goes, “Why would you ever draft a 180 pound receiver? The guy is an injury waiting to happen! The whole world knew he was injury prone! That’s why he wasn’t on anybody else’s draft board! I think Belichick should be fired! What do you guys think? I’ll hang up and listen…” 

And I for one have no desire to listen to maybe 2 months or more of that nonsense. So if you’ll forgive me, I’m going to follow the animals to the high ground until the flood waters on this one recede, and this very promising player returns. Hopefully soon.

Seriously though, sorry about the jinx. My bad on this.