FOXBORO — Patriots rookie Malik Cunningham went again to his roots Monday in apply, seeing his first prolonged motion for the reason that spring at quarterback.
Cunningham, a quarterback in school at Louisville, continues to be listed on the Patriots’ roster as a quarterback regardless of telling reporters this spring that he had made the full-time change to extensive receiver. Cunningham started apply at extensive receiver, beating cornerback Quandre Mosely in a 1-on-1 rep.
Deep into 11-on-11s, Cunningham took 15 snaps at quarterback in full-team aggressive drills. He went 4-of-7 as a passer with 5 handoffs, two designed runs and a scramble.
“Yeah, it’s awesome,” beginning quarterback Mac Jones mentioned Monday about seeing Cunningham at quarterback. “He’s very athletic. He’s a smart kid. He works hard. He doesn’t get a lot of reps, but you can see when he’s in there, he’s a little bit of a playmaker, Maybe I can take some of his running ability and add it to my game.”
The play of apply got here on a cross from Cunningham to rookie extensive receiver Kayshon Boutte. Cunningham delivered a barely errant cross into the tip zone, which Boutte introduced down with only one hand. Cunningham definitely regarded harmful within the open subject with the ball in his hand and regarded snug throwing on the run.
Cunningham’s rookie contract included a team-record $200,000 assured and a $30,000 signing bonus for an undrafted participant. He’s buried on the depth chart behind extensive receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker, Kendrick Bourne, Demario Douglas, Tyquan Thornton and Boutte, however he’s proven promise in his change to extensive receiver and even taken on some special-teams reps as a gunner.
“He’s a dude, man,” quarterback Bailey Zappe mentioned. “To be able to learn from the receiver aspect and then kind of translate it to the quarterback, that actually is probably good for him to know both of it. It helps him to understand the offense as a whole. To be able to see what he did out there in his reps that he got was pretty cool.”
The Patriots’ first preseason recreation takes place Thursday evening in opposition to the Houston Texans. It’s potential that the workforce was masking their bases by giving Cunningham reps at quarterback in case of any accidents in the course of the preseason. The Patriots even have third-string quarterback Trace McSorely on their roster. McSorely has handled accuracy points in coaching camp.
Cunningham can be an intriguing participant to maintain on the 53-man roster as a developmental extensive receiver and emergency quarterback. It may very well be troublesome to slide him onto the apply squad for the reason that Patriots needed to make investments so closely in his contract ensures.
Source: www.bostonherald.com