FOXBOROUGH - JuJu Smith-Schuster has been in the league for a bit now (this is year 7). But he was like you on Thursday night. He too got hyped for rookie Malik Cunningham’s fourth-quarter show.
“Oh man, it’s fun,” he said. “That dude is electric. When the football is in hands as a quarterback, he’s a very dangerous player, as you could see this past Thursday night. But you know, he’s a guy who was doing it in college so it’s like second nature to him to do that.”
Cunningham created a few “oooohhhhs” and “aaaahhhhs” when he debuted at QB after a spring and summer of strictly working at wide receiver, at least when the media was allowed to watch. The rookie out of Louisville led the Patriots with 34 yards rushing and a nifty touchdown run, while also completing 3-of-4 throws for 19 yards. The one incompletion? That should have been a touchdown, but was dropped by Tre Nixon.
"That was a dot," admired safety Jabril Peppers. "It was definitely a dart. Made me ask if he went to Dartmouth (ed note: felt a bit like a dad joke from Jabril)."
Sunday, during the team’s first practice since the game, Cunningham got a couple reps as a signal caller, including one with some of the more notable players on offense (I'm working around the Pats rules about personnel and play calls etc. Savvy). The same took place again on Monday. But Cunningham otherwise maintained his normal schedule, which means working with the wide receivers mostly, and now expanding to work as a gunner on the punt team as well. The more you can do...
"I don’t know a lot of quarterbacks that are covering down on punts as a gunner," said Matthew Slater. "Got to respect the kid’s approach and his attitude."
In fact, that's one of the things that has caught Slater's eye. And when you talk about knowing how it works in these parts, few know it better than the 37-year-old special teams' maven, who has known only one way his entire career: how they do business in Foxborough.
"It’s awesome, just his willingness to kind of just do whatever he’s been asked to do," he admired. "In my experience here, those are the Patriots, the guys that just do whatever they’re asked, they try to help the football team in any way possible. He’s certainly been that for our team thus far.’
You may not recall, but when Slater was drafted back in 2008, there was some question as to what he would play (aside from special teams). He lined up as a defensive back and at wide receiver. The Pats knew they had someone they wanted to work with, but finding that right spot was no guarantee. On Monday, I asked Slater just how he managed multiple positions as a fresh-faced kid out of UCLA.
"I was in a blender," he said. "I was lucky to line in the right spot half the time. It was challenging. I remember my first day in the building, I got three playbooks and I felt like I was in grad school. It was very overwhelming."
So how did Slater survive?
"You just got to take it bite by bite and not focus too much on the big picture," he continued. "Minute by minute, meeting by meeting, drill by drill kind of has to be your approach. There is a bit of treading water that goes on as a young player, especially one that’s asked to do a lot, but we feel like we have guys that can handle that.”
Though quarterback is a far more demanding position mentally than any other, we're seeing Bill Belichick and the coaching staff do what they've always done with younger players: give them one task, and if they can handle that, expand and give them more. With Cunningham's increased role in the offense since Thursday's preseason game, the rookie is definitely getting fed the same way as players like Slater were before him. How he handles that may well determine what kind of role he can carve out for himself not just in the next couple of weeks but when the regular season is upon us. For now, it's been a nice start.