As the Patriots were without wide receivers Kayshon Boutte and Mack Hollins for a matchup against the Jets, Efton Chism III knew it was his time to step up.<\/p>\n
Entering the week playing just 24 offensive snaps, Chism went on to nearly double his season total logging 41 snaps.<\/p>\n
While the rookie went on to record his first career catch \u2014 a 30-yard gain \u2014 and touchdown, it was his work in the run game that truly stood out.<\/p>\n
\u201cEfton has just shown an aptitude to understand \u2014 that\u2019s not as easy as it sounds,\u201d offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. \u201cLike people say, \u2018Well, I just go in there and block the guy.\u2019 Well, first of all is, who am I blocking? When am I blocking him? What shoulder am I blocking him on? Where\u2019s the ball going? When do I fit here? When do I fit there? Do I motion to get him? Do I not? There\u2019s a lot of little things that go into this.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just shown a strong aptitude and understanding and desire to learn it even though he hasn\u2019t had a million reps at it since training camp. Getting him the work last week, I thought he showed us that he was going to be dependable to do his job in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the 5-foot-10 Chism and 6-foot-4 Hollins come in different molds, the rookie\u2019s mentality in doing the dirty work \u2014 which also included a legal pick play to free Rhamondre Stevenson on the third-down prior to his own touchdown \u2014 ultimately helped New England replace some of the veteran\u2019s usual duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the heart\u2019s the same size,\u201d wide receivers Coach Todd Downing said. \u201cThose guys both work really hard to be great teammates and they show it in the way that they play when they don\u2019t have the football or they don\u2019t even have a chance of getting the football. So that skill set is exactly the same. You try to change up some techniques because of maybe some size differences or skill set differences, but the heart\u2019s the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Hollins out for a minimum of New England\u2019s next three games on injured reserve, Chism\u2019s work in his first extensive action will allow the team to continue to rely on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited and proud of the way he played last week in terms of his toughness, his finish,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cWe talk about the identity so much, and he went out there and embodied it the way he played. I\u2019m really excited for him to get his chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really proud of Efton,\u201d Downing added. \u201cGot an opportunity to actually put in action all the hard work that he\u2019s put in throughout the year and I thought he did a nice job with the assignments that we asked him to do and physically he went in there and battled. Obviously he\u2019s a different skill set then Mack, but he went in there with the same intentions and unselfishness and I was really, really happy that he was rewarded with the touchdown.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Patriots were without wide receivers Kayshon Boutte and Mack Hollins for a matchup against the Jets,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-647879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115825107752695815","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}