The New England Patriots went into Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field with six active wide receivers for the matchup, but not all of them saw the field.
Veteran wide receiver Kendrick Bourne didn't play on offense after playing 78% of the team's offensive snaps in the previous two games.
After the game, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo was asked about this decision.
"There was a lot to went into that (decision)," Mayo said. " Anytime we put the active roster together, we thought that was the best thing to do for us to give us the best chance to win. All those guys bring a certain skill set to the game. We just didn't know who was going to play more. It just played out that way.
"But, I will say this, even though Bourne didn't play today, he was the first one smiling when I walked in the locker room. I've always appreciated that, just his energy and excitement. Same thing with K.J. (Osborn) and the rest of those guys. Even when they're inactive, just the excitement for their teammates. We talk about abundance versus scarcity and having that mindset of abundance where we can all eat versus scarcity, if you have that scarcity mindset, you don't want your teammate to do well because there's only a certain amount of the pie. What I will say, is the mindset of this team is that when you go out there, there's enough plays to be made for all of us. We just have to go out and execute."
According to the Boston Herald's Andrew Callahan, Bourne was informed on Saturday that he may not play on Sunday to give playing time to some of the younger wideouts (DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker).
It's interesting that New England still gave more opportunities to Osborn, who is in a similar position to Bourne, over the wideout who is still returning to form from a torn ACL last year. Osborn's lone target would've gone for an incredible touchdown, but the veteran went out of bounds before catching the ball and was flagged for illegal touching.
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