FOXBORO — Patriots rookie Malik Cunningham went back to his roots Monday in practice, seeing his first extended action since the spring at quarterback.
Cunningham, a quarterback in college at Louisville, is still listed on the Patriots’ roster as a quarterback despite telling reporters this spring that he had made the full-time switch to wide receiver. Cunningham began practice at wide 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 competitive drills. He went 4-of-7 as a passer with five handoffs, two designed runs and a scramble.
“Yeah, it’s awesome,” starting quarterback Mac Jones said 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 practice came on a pass from Cunningham to rookie wide receiver Kayshon Boutte. Cunningham delivered a slightly errant pass into the end zone, which Boutte brought down with just one hand. Cunningham certainly looked dangerous in the open field with the ball in his hand and looked comfortable throwing on the run.
Cunningham’s rookie contract included a team-record $200,000 guaranteed and a $30,000 signing bonus for an undrafted player. He’s buried on the depth chart behind wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker, Kendrick Bourne, Demario Douglas, Tyquan Thornton and Boutte, but he’s shown promise in his switch to wide receiver and even taken on some special-teams reps as a gunner.
“He’s a dude, man,” quarterback Bailey Zappe said. “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 game takes place Thursday night against the Houston Texans. It’s possible that the team was covering their bases by giving Cunningham reps at quarterback in case of any injuries during the preseason. The Patriots also have third-string quarterback Trace McSorely on their roster. McSorely has dealt with accuracy issues in training camp.
Cunningham would be an intriguing player to keep on the 53-man roster as a developmental wide receiver and emergency quarterback. It could be difficult to slip him onto the practice squad since the Patriots had to invest so heavily in his contract guarantees.
