Demario Douglas became a staple of the Patriots’ passing game in recent weeks, setting career highs in snaps played in each of the last three games.
With Kendrick Bourne out for the season, Douglas will continue to be a major part of New England’s offense moving forward. But the sixth-round rookie also serves another important role for the Patriots — one he’s still learning as he goes.
“For me, I feel like I really need to harp on my punt returning, for sure,” Douglas said Monday in a video conference.
Douglas returned punts in high school and college, but doing so at the NFL level carries a much higher degree of difficulty. He’s realized that since taking over for injured All-Pro Marcus Jones as New England’s primary return man.
“You don’t see punters in the NFL doing rugby-style punts,” Patriots receivers/returners coach Troy Brown said last month. “You’ve got 10 people down the field covering the punt when you get it, by the time you pick it up off the ground or whatever. So it’s a different ballgame. The (punters) in the NFL, they work for hangtime and trying to pin you in tough situations. It’s a difference (between) fielding punts in college and fielding them in the NFL.”
Though Douglas did rip off one impressive 25-yard return in the Patriots’ Week 7 win over Buffalo, he’s also had some costly errors.
Against Miami in Week 8, he let a punt bounce that he should have fair-caught, costing the Patriots more than 15 yards of field position. In Sunday’s loss to the Washington Commanders, Douglas tried to run horizontally on a return near his own goal line and wound up losing yardage. The Patriots had to start the ensuing drive on their own 5-yard line.
Douglas said before the Dolphins game that he was “inching” toward where he wanted to be as a punt returner. Not turning a neutral play (a fair catch or short return) into a negative one is an improvement he’s prioritizing ahead of this Sunday’s matchup with the Indianapolis Colts in Frankfurt, Germany.
“Special teams is a play that can win the game,” the Liberty product said Monday. “In college, my coach used to say all the time that special teams wins games. I feel like that’s what I need to work on. Just getting vertical, things like that. Get what I can get, and if I ain’t getting nothing, get down.”
With Jones sidelined for the rest of the season due to a torn labrum, Douglas should have plenty more chances to hone his punt-returning talents. He’s also New England’s top pass-catching option following Bourne’s season-ending torn ACL.
Douglas caught five of seven targets for a career-high 55 yards and played 83% of offensive snaps in the first game after Bourne’s injury.
